Fight and Not Be Slain
by BlackBird47
Summary: After what happened with Klaus in the woods, Caroline decides to finally take him up on his offer to visit New Orleans. But she ends up in the middle of World War Mikaelson, hiding out with Klaus in an abandoned mansion as he and Caroline navigate their desire vs. personal demons, prepare for battle, and decide once and for all if their connection is something worth fighting for.
1. Semper Et Aeternum

A/N- This story picks up right after the 100th episode of Vampire Diaries where Klaroline finally got their moment in the woods(!)—I'm taking a few liberties with plotlines here and there, so there may be a couple of AU moments, but basically all you need to know for this story is—Klaus and Caroline got together in the woods, Katherine took over Elena's body, Klaus went back to New Orleans—annnd our story begins! This is going to be a Klaroline story, written from Caroline's perspective as she takes a little trip down New Orleans way (finally!), with some appearances from my other favorites like Rebekah, Elena/Katherine, Marcel, Elijah, Damon, etc. etc. Let the fun begin!

Fight and Not Be Slain

Chapter One

Caroline's phone alarm went off at 7:30 am for her morning class on the last day before Fall Break. "Ugh," she groaned, rolling over to click the snooze button until she saw the date on the screen—October 10. Her birthday. Caroline smiled sleepily. She knew it was silly, and birthdays shouldn't really mean anything anymore since it was kind of pointless adding candles to a cake when you weren't technically aging, but she couldn't help it. It still meant something to her, and one thing that would never change about her was that Caroline Forbes loved any excuse to celebrate anything. Besides, they all needed some celebrating in their lives—everyone had seemed so freaking gloomy lately.

She was so happy to have Bonnie back of course, but now that she was back, Bonnie seemed to only really like to do two things—play Long Island Medium minus the horrible bleached blond helmet hair or reenact Cougar Town with Jeremy Gilbert. And the fact that Bonnie spent so much time talking to dead people was starting to worry Caroline—plus, selfishly, Bonnie had become a complete downer with the whole "ooh, the other side is reaching out to me right now" stuff. It was bad enough when you could tell your best friend wasn't listening to your stories—it was just downright weird (not to mention rude) when you had to wonder if it was because they were staring at some dead person over your shoulder.

And while she knew firsthand how badly break-ups sucked (and had just been dumped by Tyler herself, though nobody seemed to care or ask if she was okay since it wasn't her way to wallow in depression about it all the time) and was trying her best to be patient and supportive while Elena recovered from the whole ill-advised Damon debacle (that Caroline had warned her against a billion times, but whatever), Damon breaking up with her hadn't just made Elena sad- it had set her into this weird, listless orbit of depression Caroline had never seen from her before where she didn't seem to care about anyone or anything, including herself.

First of all, she was hardly ever home—God knows where she was, and she would bite Caroline's head off even when she asked the most innocent questions about what she had been up to—and when she was home, she would just stay in her room with the door shut and locked with weird music playing, whispering on her cell phone to someone. It was so bizarre. Who was she even talking to?

Caroline had called Stefan to see if maybe Elena had gotten back with Damon and just didn't want her friends—or, okay, Caroline, the self-professed Damon-hater, to know, but according to Stefan, Damon hadn't been having any secret phone conversations as far as he knew, and they were almost always together. According to Stefan, Damon had mostly just been brooding and drinking and pining—so normal Damon behavior, Caroline thought, rolling her eyes. What a loser. Elena should be out there partying it up to celebrate that she'd finally gotten away from that jerk.

Oh well. Elena had been all convinced Damon was her big epic love. Maybe this was going to just take a little longer to get over than her other boyfriends. And hopefully Caroline's birthday would be just the thing to help everybody forget their troubles, at least for a little while.

All three girls always did something special for her birthday, and they knew that ever since she'd been a little girl, this day had been a big deal to her. They had to do _something_ fun for it, and she couldn't be the one to organize it—that was just lame. Even though Bonnie and Elena had been distracted by all of their own stuff, surely they had something planned—she'd even be happy at this point with something totally informal, like just going out for drinks and some good old-fashioned ghetto dancing. No matter what was going on in their lives, they'd always come together as a trio for her birthday. They knew it was special to her, and Caroline had decided vampire birthdays were even better—all the fun, none of the pesky aging.

_You could have a thousand more birthdays_. She suddenly remembered Klaus telling her that, in his soft, low murmur of a voice. Caroline closed her eyes, pulling her sheets up to her neck, pressing her lips together hard, shivering slightly. Klaus. Better not to even go there.

It had been three weeks since they'd last seen each other in the woods when she'd been looking for Matt outside the Salvatore boarding house and Klaus had made his surprise appearance. Klaus just appearing out of nowhere that day, everything she'd said to him, everything they'd done, it all felt like such a blur that Caroline would have thought she just made it all up if she hadn't woken up the next day on the Salvatore's couch with all her friends asleep around her, going to the bathroom mirror and locking the door behind her to gingerly examine some incriminating scratches and bruises in odd places that apparently resulted when a thousand year old hybrid rocked a vampire's freaking world. There was also the indisputable evidence that she was wearing her zip-up green jacket as a top, her bra and button-up shirt lost in the woods somewhere after Klaus had literally torn them off of her body. Caroline grinned sheepishly at the memory, her cheeks growing hot.

She'd never known sex could actually be like that, at least not sex that anyone would ever want to have with her. In the hastily constructed plans she had formed in her mind when she'd run into him, Caroline had decided to kiss him—okay, make out with him a little, and then walk away, maybe look back and give him a little smile for good measure.

But then she had kissed him, and it had felt so good, and he had smiled at her—_that smile, _good lord—and they'd started making out, and that had felt amazing, and then for the first time in Caroline Forbes' life, she'd stopped thinking. And apparently, she was not cut out for rebellion, or should have done it in smaller doses along the way of her life or something, because she had gone fucking crazy.

They'd literally been like animals the first time they'd done it, ripping off each other's clothes, doing it right up against the tree, hard and fast Caroline's hands clenching, her fingers tangled in his hair when she suddenly and unexpectedly came with a shuddering gasp, Klaus groaning with release, holding her up against the tree, his other hand pressed against the tree trunk above their heads, both of them breathing hard and sagging against each other like they'd just survived a warzone.

After a moment, Klaus had pulled back slightly to look her in the eyes, and they'd smiled at each other again, Caroline feeling so powerful and blissed out and hot all over when he was holding her and looking at her that way. He kissed her, and slowly lowered her to the ground, laying her down on top of their scattered clothes as he explored every inch of her with his mouth and tongue and hands, eventually going down on her until tears were literally sliding down her cheeks it felt so good at the end. And that was just the beginning of… Caroline wasn't quite sure what to call what had happened between them.

They had done it so many times in that clearing that it seemed kind of silly to call it an "encounter." She didn't even know how many times they had done it total by the time they parted ways—she had actually lost count. Caroline Forbes didn't have sex so many times she lost count. Caroline Forbes wore matching underwear sets and ironed her jeans. She smiled to herself. She was missing one half of a matching underwear set now. But she wasn't too heartbroken about it. A blouse and bra from Forever 21 seemed like a small price to pay for finally demystfying what all those Cosmo articles had been talking about when they described having "mind-blowing" orgasms with your man.

Not like he was her man or anything, Caroline quickly corrected herself. He'd left Mystic Falls just like he said he would, and she hadn't heard from him since. They hadn't exactly left on the best of terms, even after all the awesome sexytimes. She had been the one who had finally said she had to go back to her friends that night, and at first he had acted like she had said the meanest thing in the world. What had he been expecting? How had they gone from magic woodland sex to fighting and crying and…Caroline sighed, rubbing her forehead wearily.

Did Klaus just think they'd stay out there, having sex forever? Sure, in one of her super-secret Klaus fantasies, he would just be waiting for her in the woods to pleasure her whenever she wanted, but in real life—um, he wasn't her sex toy, she was in college, and both of them had to return to their real lives. Sure, the night they'd gotten together, even she had forgotten real life for a little while. But just for a little while. She'd barely even noticed any time had passed since he'd first pushed her up against that tree, but when she'd momentarily recovered from the haze of pleasure that made thinking coherent thoughts impossible, rolling off of him just to catch her breath, Caroline had looked up at the sky and realized the stars were shining down on them.

"_W-When did it get dark outside?" she asked Klaus breathlessly, looking over to see him sprawled out on his back on the pallet of their scattered clothes._

"_No idea, love," Klaus turned on his side towards her, brushing a strand of sweaty blond hair back off her forehead. "I hadn't noticed. I suppose I've been a bit preoccupied." _

_He kissed her, and Caroline closed her eyes, kissing him back, feeling like she was drunk on having so much Klaus all at once after denying for years that she felt anything at all for him. She loved the way he kissed her after he made love to her, so slow and deep, Klaus caressing her face, her body with gentle exploratory fingers, their shared vampire and hybrid abilities already heightening every sensation, her body responding to his touch even more intensely after an orgasm. Sex had felt good before, but never even close to this—she wondered if it was because, like all of their abilities, Klaus' powers had strengthened with age. Everybody knew vampire sex was hotter than your average everyday variety, but this was insane. Caroline was gloriously sore, her body throbbing in some very interesting places, still turned on and almost…rabid…like the way she'd felt when she'd craved blood the first time._

_But the logical, human side of her brain annoyingly intervened and told her that they couldn't just keep doing each other in the woods for all of infinity. She didn't even know how much more her body could physically take—maybe she needed to build up more vampire strength for Klaus sex marathons or something, and while that sounded really, really fun, she thought she might be at her limit. Her muscles were already trembling and her skin soaked with sweat, and as much as she wanted to just keep going, she felt like he was going to break her vagina or melt her brain or something if they did it again. _

_She broke away from their kiss breathlessly after a moment, leaning her forehead against his. "Everyone…will be wondering where I am."_

"_I thought you were staunchly opposed to the whole 'gloating over a dead girl' party," Klaus pointed out, mumbling the words against the skin of her neck._

"_I am, but…" Caroline's breath caught in her throat as he started to massage one of her breasts, losing her train of thought for a moment as his thumb gently kneaded her nipple and he started kissing her neck. She had to do or say something because her body was already responding to him, and she needed to call it before Round…what were they on now? Ten? Eleven? She needed to come back to reality. They both did. Her own words from what felt like a lifetime ago returned to her…she wanted to make a life for herself, her own life, and every second she spent out here with him would just make it harder to let him go. "Klaus, please…you promised…"_

_He stopped what he was doing, pulling away and looking down at her. "You really want me to leave? Right now?"_

"_You asked me for the truth. About what I want."_

"_And you still haven't given me your answer." Klaus pointed out._

_Caroline let out a disbelieving laugh, looking around at the aftermath of her practically mauling him and the hours they'd spent together in the woods as day had turned into night. "You cannot be serious. You still don't know what I want? Was something about the sexathon we just had unclear to you?"_

_For a moment he just looked at her with an expression of such immense sadness and disappointment that Caroline felt his misery resonate in her bones, feeling connected to him in a different way than she had before they'd slept together, a way that scared her with its power and depth. But he didn't seem overwhelmed by the same newfound connection. His eyes were dark and hurt, as if she had just unknowingly opened a deep scarred-over wound. Finally, Klaus just gave he a short, curt nod, pulling away from her and starting to get dressed in silence. _

"_What? What's wrong?" Caroline sat up as well, grabbing her zip-up jacket off the ground and pulling it over her shoulders, zipping it up before rooting around in the leaves to find her tangled up underwear and jeans. Klaus was already dressed and starting to walk away when she got them on, climbing to her feet and hurrying after him, zipping and buttoning her jeans. "Klaus! Stop it! Don't just walk away. Talk to me."_

_He turned around so suddenly she nearly ran right into his chest, Klaus catching her by her arms, his voice an angry growl. "Oh, I think you've said it all, Caroline. I asked you what you wanted from me, and you told me." He looked down at her mussed appearance, shaking his head and letting out a derisive snort. "I did my very best to give you your heart's desire, princess. I do hope I didn't disappoint you." She hadn't heard him this angry in a long time. "I promised to leave and never come back if you were honest with me about what you wanted, and you held up your end of the bargain. So now it's my turn. Goodbye, Caroline." He turned to go, but Caroline grabbed his arm, wrenching him back around to her._

"_You're not being fair!" Caroline shouted. "You can't ask someone for the truth and then throw a temper tantrum like a little boy because they don't tell you what you want to hear! That's not how it works, Klaus!"_

"_Oh, and you're always so bloody eager to tell me how everything works, aren't you, Caroline? Go on, then. Tell me how this works. Tell me you still don't give a damn about me. Tell me what just happened between us meant nothing to you."_

"_I never said that," Caroline shook her head, frustrated tears spilling down her cheeks. "Of course I care about you. Of course it meant something. But that doesn't change…it doesn't change who we are. I can't just…" Caroline ran a hand through her messy blond curls. "I don't know what you want me to do."_

"_The same thing I've always wanted." Klaus took her face in his hands. "Come with me. I've waited for you. I've tried to stay away and forget you. But I can't. I can't do it. I've wanted you from the first moment I saw you, and I want you now more than any man ever could, no matter how many thousands of years we live after this."_

"_Klaus—"_

"_You were right about me, Caroline. I was hurt, I was lost, but you saved me. I love you. I'm in love with you. I don't ever want to be away from you again. Come with me. I don't even care where we go, as long as we're together. Leave this all behind, and I swear to you, I will love you for all the lifetimes we have left." _

_Caroline shook her head, starting to fully cry. "I…I just can't. I'm so sorry."_

_Klaus swallowed hard, his jaw clenched, his eyes full of tears. "May I at least ask why?"_

_She pulled away from him miserably. "I don't trust myself with you. Even just now…when we were together…I had this crazy thought that…I could just be with you, hidden away, you and me in the dark, forever, and be fine with it. My friends, my family, my life— when I'm with you, they all feel so far away. And when I'm with you, it feels so good, so impossibly good, that I…I think I'd lose myself in you, and if there was nowhere there to stop me-"_

"_You're the strongest person I know, Caroline. The strongest, the bravest, the only person who ever told me the truth—there's nothing on this earth that could make you lose yourself to anyone or anything. Nothing. Why are you so afraid of pleasure? Why do always run from it like it's going to ruin your life?" Klaus demanded._

_Caroline rubbed her forehead, honest with him as she could be with no one else. "I…I don't know. I'm afraid, I guess."_

"_Of what? Happiness?"_

"_Blindness. Letting myself forget the truth because of how I feel."_

"_The truth again. We've come back to that, have we? Go on then. What is this precious truth about me you keep so carefully guarded?"_

_She threw her hands in the air with frustration. "I don't care about what you've done anymore! All the people you've hurt, all the lives you've ruined, all of the thoughtless acts of violence you've done—I know they should make me hate you, but they don't. I can't even conjure up disgust anymore because it's just too exhausting to keep pretending that I hate you. And the fact that I don't care that you're a monster, that I don't find you disgusting, that I don't hate you…it makes me hate myself. Because it means it's finally happened. It means it's finally happened, and I have to accept it. It means I'm a monster too." Caroline wiped tears off her cheeks._

"_Caroline, no—" Klaus shook his head. "Forgiveness doesn't make you a monster. Quite the opposite. It means you have mercy in your heart—sadly for everyone but yourself, love. But I can see it, even if you can't. You're an angel. The only true embodiment of beauty and light that I've ever found in a world that's done everything it can to crush the goodness out of you. But it hasn't managed it yet. And I don't believe it ever will. Because you're strong. And good. And if everyone else mistakes your kindness for weakness, it's only because they mistake anger for strength. Being angry doesn't make you strong. My angriest years were my weakest. I was so lost for so many centuries. But you woke me up, Caroline. You showed me there could be more to this life than misery and loneliness. And any peace I've found, any shred of goodness you've seen, any fleeting moment of kindness—they were only pale reflections of your light, darling. It's all because of you."_

_She stepped forward, out of words for a moment, just kissing him hard, wrapping her arms around his neck, Klaus stumbling back slightly before taking her in his arms and kissing her back. She could taste his tears mingling with her own as they embraced, a long, desperate kiss, before she ended it, speaking with her lips still brushing his, keeping her promise and telling him the truth. "I don't want you to go. But if you stay—"_

"_They'd never understand. I know. I only want your happiness, Caroline. And if that happiness is here in Mystic Falls, then I know it can't be with me. But if you ever reconsider…" He kissed her once more, gently disentangling himself from her before walking away, disappearing into the darkness of the woods without another word. _

And that had been that. No calls, texts, e-mails, anything from him since. She knew she shouldn't be surprised since she had made it clear they couldn't be together, but to be honest, it had hurt a little. And she just missed him. He was the only person in her life who let her be completely honest, and who listened to her every word with such intent focus that it made her a little nervous sometimes, but she still loved it.

It felt like she'd had to work her ass off to talk everyone else—her friends, boys she'd dated—into liking her before Klaus. He hadn't needed any convincing, that was for sure. He'd asked her to run away with him to Rome on their first "date" or whatever that Mikaelson ball thing had been. It had been weirdly more romantic than any actual date she'd ever gone on, even though she'd spent most of the night telling him off, he'd seemed to like it. Really, really like it. She still had the picture he'd drawn her from that night, hidden away at the bottom of her keepsake box. She didn't even know why she kept it. Just no one had ever done anything like that for her before.

It was overwhelming sometimes and unfamiliar to think that Klaus was actually, genuinely just into her and not her prettier friends, and while she had always scoffed and laughed off his "epic love" declarations in the past, she had always kept a special, secret place in her heart where she could admit to herself that she loved the way Klaus looked at her, treated her like a queen, bought her gifts, showered her with compliments, actually cared what she thought, actually listened whens she spoke, showed up whenever she needed him—sometimes before she even knew how much she needed him. Like that day in the woods. Some part of her had been very happy he was back in town. _Yeah, your lady parts_, she thought with a guilty little smile.

Caroline shook herself mentally, climbing out of bed in her pink-and-white striped Victoria's Secret pajamas, grabbing her phone and padding over to the bathroom in socked feet. She brushed her teeth and washed her face, putting on the Birthday playlist she had made on her phone when it was just too freaking quiet in the apartment. The door to Bonnie's bedroom was open, and her bed was still made up, so apparently she had slept somewhere else last night, and she could hear the TV on in Elena's room, so she knew she wouldn't be waking her up with music. Caroline took off her pajamas and socks, climbing into the shower and turning on the hot water, singing along to Zendaya's "Replay," finding it very, very annoying that lately every song that even had the slightest connection to sex (or boys, or love, or…really any song with lyrics) now made her think obsessively about Klaus, especially when she was naked and under pounding hot water.

Caroline looked around guiltily, almost as if someone could be watching and judging her even while she was in the shower, seriously considering something she used to think was more of a Samantha-from-Sex-and-the-City thing, but that she'd been doing more and more often post-Klaus-sex. She'd even found herself looking at vibrators online (before immediately deleting her browser history, of course), because she knew she'd never have the lady balls to buy one herself in public. But what if Elena or Bonnie opened the package before she got home? She'd be mortified. She was supposed to be the good friend. Perfect little Caroline. She didn't use vibrators. She didn't think like that. And maybe she could save money and embarrassment— their shower head was detachable…

Just as she was tentatively sliding slippery fingers between her legs to begin, her cell phone pinged with a new text message and Caroline nearly fell to her death, slipping in the shower with surprise, catching herself on the wall, letting out a little gasp of surprise. It was like some higher power was telling her not to masturbate or something. _All right, all right, message received_, Caroline thought glumly, finishing her shower much more innocently than she wanted, climbing out and wrapping a towel around her head and another around her body.

She walked over to her phone, having a happy little inward debate over who would be her first birthday text. Maybe Bonnie felt guilty for not being there to make her birthday breakfast? Maybe her mom actually remembered for once? Maybe Matt or Stefan or Jeremy? She'd done her fair share of throwing good parties for them over the years, she was certainly due some appreciation. Or her project group friends from her American Lit class? She'd dropped some not-so-subtle hints to them about her birthday coming up. Caroline wiped off her hands on her towel, picking up her cell phone and clicking the button to read the screen.

She nearly dropped the phone.

KLAUS

Happy birthday love.

She took a deep breath, unable to help responding. It was like a sickness. Caroline Forbes could not abide an unreturned text, mostly because it made her so crazy when people didn't return her texts, she didn't want to inflict that on anyone else she cared about. Her fingers were shaking slightly as she typed, and she reprimanded herself for being so silly. It was sweet of him to remember, but Klaus had always said he loved birthdays too. She needed to calm down. It was a freaking text message. It wasn't like he'd proposed marriage or anything. She hadn't told him to never talk to her again. She had just said not to come back to Mystic Falls, and he hadn't. Texts were allowed in this weird, confusing new arrangement of theirs, she supposed.

CAROLINE

U remembered

KLAUS

Of course

…

Big plans?

CAROLINE

Prob just w the girls

…

What r u up 2?

KLAUS

N2m, going 2 a jazz festival tonight w Bekah and Elijah

…

Wish u were here

…

But that's nothing new :)

CAROLINE

That sounds fun

KLAUS

More fun with a beautiful blond date on my arm

…

You haven't had a proper birthday until you've had one in the French Quarter love

CAROLINE

UR 15 hrs away from me and my car's a piece of crap

…

I might be a little late for the party :)

KLAUS

Say the word and I'll book u a first class ticket to NOLA

…

Call it a birthday present if that makes u feel better

…

2 hr flight- U could b here by this afternoon

Caroline was surprised by how tempted she was by his offer. Klaus asked her to come to New Orleans all the time, and she said no—it was just something they did. He probably wasn't even being all that serious, probably expecting a refusal. But it did sound fun. And exciting. And it would make for one hell of a birthday.

_I'm too smart to be seduced by you. I know. That's what I like about you._

Was that all this was? A seduction? Now that they'd slept together, was the whole "not being seduced by darkness" point null and void? Caroline looked up at the mirror, seeing her make-up less face and her hair still in a towel turban. It was way too early in the morning for this confusing of thoughts.

CAROLINE

I have 2 go 2 class. Text u after

KLAUS

Bugger class. It's ur birthday

CAROLINE

I always knew u were a bad influence

KLAUS

:)

Caroline smiled, taking down her hair and scrunching the waves with gel so she could wear it down and wavy for her birthday. She got dressed in a simple white lace sundress, noticing it looked windy and overcast outside, digging out her brown leggings and boots and a denim jacket to wear with the dress so she wouldn't freeze walking around campus. After she got dressed, she finished blow-drying her hair with the diffuser to keep it curly, and put on a little bit of mascara and lip gloss. She tossed her phone in her brown leather purse, knocking on Elena's door before she left for class.

"Elena? Hey, I have to go to class."

There was a sound of frantic rummaging around and the TV clicking off before Elena answered the door, looking like hell with smudged eye make-up, her long brown hair messy and greasy in a side-braid over her shoulder, wearing a black tank top and underwear. There were dark shadows under her eyes, and Caroline thought her teeth looked slightly pink, as if she'd recently fed. It smelled like alcohol and blood in her room, but was pitch dark behind her. Elena barely opened the door a crack, peering out at Caroline with bleary, hung-over eyes. "What is it?" she muttered.

"S-Sorry," Caroline blinked with surprise. "Didn't mean to um, disturb your slumber or whatever, but I…I just have to go to class."

Elena shrugged her thin shoulders, looking bored and exhausted. "Okay."

Caroline tried not to let her hurt feelings show on her face. Not even a happy birthday hug? Or…like, some acknowledgement? She knew Elena had an early morning class too. They usually ate breakfast and walked to class together on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But apparently, not today. "So…I'll just be going."

"Awesome. Go…uh, learn something." Elena gave her a little fake smile, practically slamming the door in Caroline's face. Caroline even heard her lock it afterwards. Caroline sputtered with shock. There was bad break-up behavior, and then there was just being a bitch. The meter needle was rapidly moving to bitch where Elena was concerned.

"So all my friends suck." Caroline mumbled under her breath, walking out of the door and to her first class, barely paying any attention to the Bio lecture, wondering what the hell was wrong with Elena. Elena had never been a morning person, but sheesh. After class, Caroline's phone pinged with a new text message, and Caroline dug it out of her purse, hoping it was an apology from Elena. But it was from Matt.

MATT

Just wanted 2 give u a heads-up that Tyler's back in town and not doing so great

CAROLINE

WTF? Really?

MATT

Really and I would avoid Mystic Grill 2day if I were u

CAROLINE

Why

MATT

He's here and doing shots at 10 in the morning

CAROLINE

Y is he so upset

MATT

He won't say but prob something to do with Klaus

CAROLINE

So what else is new

MATT

LOL no shit- just wanted 2 let u know- I prob wouldn't come here 2night at all if I were u

CAROLINE

Thanks

MATT

Sure thing

_Great_, Caroline thought to herself. Just when she thought the Tyler drama was over. Thinking about seeing him again made her feel absolutely exhausted. He was always mad at her about something, and after he'd clearly failed in his crazy vengeance campaign against Klaus, somehow it was all going to be her fault, or she was going to be disgusting for still talking to Klaus, or…who knows. She couldn't even guess what she was going to be in trouble for this time. At least no one knew about her sleeping with Klaus yet. She couldn't even imagine the shitstorm that would unleash if Tyler ever found out.

Caroline looked down at her phone. Still no calls from anyone else. Matt hadn't wished her a happy birthday either, just told her she couldn't go to her favorite party place tonight because her stupid ex-boyfriend was there so she wasn't _allowed_ to go there. And it wasn't like Mystic Falls was overrun with awesome bars and nightclubs either. Choices were pretty limited. It was Mystic Grill or…leave town?

She thought back to Klaus' offer. She did have the whole next week off for Fall Break. She only had one afternoon class, and she'd already e-mailed in her paper for it, so she didn't even really have to go. None of her friends seemed to care that she was alive, much less that it was her birthday. But Klaus remembered. He cared. Taking the plane ticket seemed a little too Bella Swan though. She had a better idea. Caroline grinned, feeling wild and rebellious as her plan further formulated, texting Klaus.

CAROLINE

What's ur address

KLAUS

Reconsidered my offer have u?

CAROLINE

No I just want 2 send u something

…

The old-fashioned way. I thought u would appreciate the gesture since ur like a billion yrs old :)

KLAUS

Fair enough

Niklaus Mikaelson

!902 Dauphine Street

New Orleans, LA

70116

CAROLINE

U didn't have 2 put ur name crazy

…

I know what ur name is

KLAUS

Just keeping things formal and old-fashioned between us

CAROLINE

So do I have to call u niklaus now?

KLAUS

Call me whatever u want love

…

and if u don't mind putting ur return address as well, i'll happily find and mail to you more than suitable replacements for the articles of clothing of yours that I regrettably destroyed during our last meeting. Sincerest apologies about that, btw. I'm clearly unable to maintain logical thought in your presence, as I'm sure u know by now.

CAROLINE

Don't worry about it.

…

I have 2 go. Have fun at ur festival

KLAUS

Will do. And I'll buy everyone at the bar tonight a round and make a toast in your honor. The day Caroline Forbes came into the world should always be properly celebrated.

CAROLINE

Glad u agree :)

…

KLAUS

Can I tell u something that might make you hate me again

CAROLINE

Oh great what now

KLAUS

I hate ending our conversations without saying I love you at the end

…

It feels so fake not to say it 2 u

…

It always has

Caroline looked down at her phone for a moment, breathing out as if she'd just had the wind knocked out of her. Klaus always talked about how he admired her goodness and kindness—well, she'd always admired his bravery and honesty. Good grief. She couldn't even imagine how terrifying it would feel to put yourself out there like that.

CAROLINE

Maybe we should talk about this face to face.

KLAUS

I couldn't agree more.

…

What r u saying? R u coming here?

CAROLINE

Just go to ur festival. I need 2 think about some things.

KLAUS

Ok.

…

Call me if u need me 2night. I'll have my phone w me.

CAROLINE

I will

Caroline put her phone back into her purse, not allowing herself too much time to think or talk herself out of what she was doing, marching back to her apartment, finding Elena's door still closed and presumably locked and Bonnie's room still empty but not caring, hoping neither of them saw her or asked her any questions as she hurriedly packed a bag of clothes and toiletries and walked straight out to her car. She climbed in, tossing the overnight bag into the passenger seat next to her, digging her phone out of her purse and turning on Google Maps.

It located her present address of Whitmore College for the starting point, and after clicking the line for the destination, Caroline typed: 1902 Dauphine Street, New Orleans, LA, 70116. She turned on the voice guide, set the phone down in her cup holder, and backed out of her parking space, following the voice's instructions and hitting the highway, bound for New Orleans. She wasn't waiting around for anything anymore. She had read in a magazine that it was extremely important for a girl to take a road trip by herself at least once in her life, and there was something so liberating and exciting to think she was leaving town and no one could stop her. She could just drive until she was tired, stay in some crappy hotel tonight, and then show up in New Orleans tomorrow and give Klaus the surprise of his life. Let everybody else deal with their own tired drama back in stupid old Mystic Falls. She _so_ needed to get out of town for awhile, she wanted to see Klaus, she'd never been to New Orleans or anywhere interesting really, and absolutely nothing was stopping her but her own fear. And Caroline was so fucking tired of being afraid.

She was going to do something for herself, just because she wanted to do it, and for once, she wasn't going to beat herself up endlessly about it. Everyone else she knew just did what they wanted all the time while she fretted and worried and made plans in the corner. Not today. She had no real plan. Right now, she was just going to do her best to stop thinking and drive. Happy Birthday to me, Caroline smiled to herself, putting on her sunglasses to block out the sun feebly peeking from behind the storm clouds and turning up the radio as she took the ramp onto the highway.

Caroline finally made it to New Orleans around two o'clock the next day, her blond curls twisted back on each side and pulled into a low side ponytail, her hair annoyingly misbehaving on the day of her big arrival, frizzy from the humid weather and the shitty motel shower's hard water. She felt groggy from being on the road for so long and not sleeping very well the previous night on a very questionable mattress with very pokey springs, but she was feeling much more awake and alert now that she was finally here. She'd done her best to look cute with the limited resources in the motel room and an iron that didn't work, wearing dark denim jeans with her brown boots and a purple floral print blouse.

It was starting to drizzle down rain, and she already had no idea where she was going, straining to see clearly as her wiper blades left streaks behind on the windshield. When she and Tyler had been dating, he would always pester her that she needed to get her wiper blades replaced. And her oil changed more often than once in a blue moon. And her headlight fixed. Somehow she never seemed to get around to doing those things because she figured—she lived in Mystic Falls. How far could she really need to drive? Plus, her mom was the sheriff. What, was she going to get grounded or something for a faulty headlight? But now that she'd actually put her poor little car through its paces on a fifteen-hour road trip, she could see that she probably should have taken better care of it all these years. Things were starting to creak that should not be creaking. The brakes were making odd noises whenever she took corners. It'd be a miracle if this car survived the trip home. Oh well. She'd worry about that later. Right now, she needed to figure out where the heck she was going.

It was starting to rain harder, and Caroline could barely see the lights of the car in front of her. It was the middle of the day, but the storm had completely blotted out the sun, turning the roads ominously dark and shadowed. She turned off her radio, needing to focus. The signs she had passed earlier told her that she should be getting close to the main city center of New Orleans at this point, and when she glanced down to see the two little dots on Google Maps, they were almost on top of each other. When she looked back up, taking what should have been her last right turn, Caroline gasped, slamming on the brakes. The car in front of her had come to a complete stop, and she nearly rear-ended them, her car's tires squealing and hydroplaning on the slick street, the front of her car stopping what must have been mere inches from the car in front of her.

"Holy shit!" She clapped her hand to her chest, feeling like her heart was going to explode. The car in front of her had stopped so suddenly because they had both turned onto a street that had a full police blockade in front, red and blue lights flashing, making Caroline slightly dizzy, crime scene tape everywhere, and as she strained her eyes harder, she could see several historic buildings that looked like the tops had been ripped off of them by some kind of movie monster, burned and hollowed out down to their bottom floors. There were banners hanging haphazardly across the buildings, most of the banners half-torn down, and Caroline could make out something about a Jazz Festival on one of them. Posters for the same festival were plastered on every building in the vicinity, most peeling off from the rain now, but it looked as though some had been literally _clawed_ off of the walls, the claw marks deep enough that they'd penetrated solid brick and stone. All of the buildings bore scorch marks and the ground was covered in damp ash as if there had been some kind of hellhole opened there last night. Caroline gingerly turned off her car, climbing out with her keys still in hand and walking over to the nearest police officer.

"Excuse me, sir…"

"Ma'am, this is a crime scene," the officer said shortly, "please turn your vehicle around and find another way to your destination."

"Um, okay, I hear you, but this is my destination. My friend lives on Dauphin Street." She tucked a few loose strands of her damp hair behind her ears, getting soaked to the bone by the rain but not caring. "Can you tell me anything about what happened here?"

"We're not releasing any of that information, I'm sorry."

Caroline stepped closer to him, speaking in her sweetest voice, her hand on the man's arm. "Please. I'm just worried for my friend."

The police officer looked down at her, sighing slightly. "I would be too, if I were you. We knew there had been some trouble lately between the more eccentric…factions of the city, but last night it turned into a full-blown riot."

"People were hurt?" Caroline asked quietly.

"Try twenty-seven people, sweetheart." The officer rubbed his forehead wearily. "The news outlets are already calling it "Cult Carnage in the French Quarter." As if this city didn't have enough bad press already."

Caroline felt her heart twist with worry, looking up at the man, focusing all of her energy on his eyes, compelling him to answer. "Was Klaus Mikaelson here last night? During the riot?"

"Was he here?" The man snorted with humorless laughter. "He practically started the whole thing. That son of a bitch."

"He killed people? Innocent people?"

"I don't know about killed, sweetheart, we don't have the full casualty report yet. So far, we know that twenty-seven people were either injured or have been reported missing. As far as what your friend Klaus got up last night, I was a little distracted by the complete fucking mayhem to notice who was doing what to whom. When I got here, everything was already underway. I saw him on a stage with those crazy siblings of his, having some kind of knock-down-drag-out fight. Those maniacs were tearing buildings apart with their bare hands, and so we weren't exactly tripping over each other to intervene, and by then, there was already so much chaos down here, we figured we could do more good on the ground."

"Was Klaus arrested?"

"Are you crazy? No. Once we realized bullets weren't hurting them or even slowing them down, we backed off. No one knows where he went. He disappeared during the riot. And listen, hon, I've seen some crazy shit in my days working this town, so I'm not going to say that anything's impossible, and I don't know _what_ your friend Klaus is, or what he thinks he's doing, but this is a city that's trying to rebuild. If you see him, you tell him to stay the hell away from here."

"What about Rebekah and Elijah? His siblings?"

"They're gone too. Good riddance. Fucking monsters. Makes me sick. You know, all these witches and vampires and werewolves—they're what's giving New Orleans a bad name. I say we just lock them all up together and burn 'em all."

_You'd have to lose the donut gut and catch all of us first, asshole, _Caroline found herself thinking spitefully, shocking herself. She'd never so readily identified with the vampire community before, even just in her own mind.

"Thank you for your help." She looked into the man's eyes again, compelling him to forget everything they'd just discussed. He blinked, looking down at her as if she had just walked up to him. "Ma'am, this is a crime scene. Please turn your vehicle around and find another way to your destination."

"Oh, my goodness—what happened here?" she asked with mock innocence because it seemed too suspicious that she wouldn't at least ask.

"I said to turn your vehicle around, not ask a million questions," the officer barked sternly, clearly relishing this rare moment of power.

Caroline just nodded like she was a good little compliant citizen, trying to take everything in that he'd told her before, walking back to her car, her hair and clothes dripping wet as she climbed back in, backing out and starting to drive down the longer main street, having no clue where to go now. She dug out her phone, clicking Klaus' name on her Contacts list and waiting impatiently as the phone rang and rang, drumming the thumb of her other hand against the steering wheel with anxiety. Finally he answered.

"What do you want, Caroline?" She could barely hear him—the reception was terrible. His voice sounded ragged and broken, a man absolutely exhausted and at the end of his rope.

"Klaus, where are you?" she asked, noticing that the aftermath of last night's riot continued past just the main site of the festival. There were claw and burn marks on other buildings too, and crime scene tape over the doors of other establishments, cop cars at seemingly every third door on the French Quarter. "I just drove past your address in New Orleans, and—"

"You're here?"

"Well…yeah, I thought I'd surprise you," Caroline said, feeling suddenly nervous and embarrassed. There was a long silence on the other end of the line. "Was that not okay?" Caroline finally prodded.

"You mad, beautiful woman," Klaus breathed out with a weary laugh, "I've been trying to get you to come down here since the day I met you, and you finally show up the day after the bloody apocalypse."

"Are you all right? The police said something about a riot—"

"Yes, we Mikaelsons caused quite the scene. That traitorous family of mine keeps trying, but they never seem to manage killing me off, do they?" he said bitterly. "Not exactly the nice night out I'd imagined for me and my dear sweet baby sister and that brother of mine that everyone always thinks is so bloody _good._ I don't understand it, Caroline. I really don't. No matter what evil deeds they do, Rebekah's still the poor little victim and Elijah's still the noble stalwart. And I'm still the disgusting bastard son whose entire existence is owed to the indulgence of our mother's baser instincts. What hope did she give me of not being hated by all of them, really? We all have our little roles we play, I suppose."

Caroline didn't like the way he was talking. Klaus had a tendency to wallow if he started down this road, and she wasn't going to let that happen. "Klaus. Tell me where you are. I'm coming to you."

"I'm afraid I wouldn't make for very good company at the moment, love."

"I don't care. I did not just drive for fifteen hours in a car with air-conditioning that decided it just didn't really feel like working in Alabama, pay for overpriced gas with a credit card that I probably just maxed out, live off Chex Mix, Pink Rockstar Energy drinks and blood bags from a mini-cooler for two days, and then sleep alone in a freaking sixty-four dollars a night room at Day's Inn on the night of my birthday for nothing. So tell me where the hell you are. Now."

There was another pause, but this time, she could practically hear him smiling. "Good God, Caroline. Now I'm not sure who's had the more horrific experience in the past twenty-four hours."

"Shut up." She laughed. "It wasn't that bad."

"Are you talking about my night or yours? Because I'm still trying to process the fact that a hotel exists in the twenty-first century that charges sixty-four dollars a night for a room."

"I believe it's called a _motel_, actually." Caroline giggled. "And you are such a snob sometimes. So sorry my life isn't fancy enough to live up to your royal standards, Your Highness."

"I did offer to purchase you a plane ticket," Klaus pointed out.

"Yeah, and thank goodness I didn't take you up on that offer—I would have been right in the middle of World War Mikaelson last night," Caroline countered.

"Touché, darling."

"Then I would have had to vamp out and you'd get all distracted by my awesome super skills, and they'd totally have owned your distracted ass, and then where would you be?" Caroline grinned.

"You know, that's actually a very good point. You so very rarely let me see your true face, Caroline. Me or anyone else, from what I've heard."

"My true face?"

"You as a vampire."

"Um, yeah. Because I look disgusting."

"First of all, that's not possible. And second of all, I rather liked the look of you…ravenous."

Caroline shifted in her seat a little nervously. "Okay, whatever, I've now driven around the same city block like ten times. People are going to start thinking I'm an escaped mental patient or something. Or like casing the joint."

"_Casing the joint?_" She could hear him smiling again.

"Yeah. Like planning a heist. There's a bank on this street. It's a thing. People say that," Caroline said defensively.

"Oh, I know. I just didn't know Caroline Forbes said that." Klaus laughed.

"Ugh, you are so annoying sometimes! Just tell me where you are already." She rolled her eyes.

"All right, all right. What street are you on now?"

"Canal."

"Cross street?"

"Um…hold on, I'm coming to the light. Treme. Like the show."

"Keep going straight on Canal until you see Clairborne. Take a right on Clairborne and then another right on St. Louis. You'll see the St. Louis Cemetery #1 on your right when you turn. Park your car in the cemetery parking lot. Sorry, love, but you're going to have to get a bit wet. Keep your head down and if anyone approaches you, do not talk to them. If they press the issue…neutralize them if you have to. Desperate times, and all that. Once you're out of the parking lot, turn to your left and you'll see a neighborhood street. If you continue down about a block and look to your left, you'll see a short drive that leads up to a red brick manor. Walk down the drive and then around to the back yard of the house. I'll meet you there. Do not go near the front door or even step onto the porch. The entire front of the house is rigged to keep out…er, unwanted guests. Vampires aren't our only enemy here, so we can't just rely on them being uninvited anymore. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Caroline said, feeling a strange little thrill of excitement. _Yippee, our lives are in our danger! _She really was going nuts lately. How boring must her life have become in Mystic Falls that evading evil armies of werewolves and witches and Mikaelsons sounded fun instead of scary? As had been happening a lot lately, she remembered something Klaus had told her once—_Small town boy, small town life, it won't be enough for you… _But what was the solution? Keep putting herself in crazier and crazier situations like she had some kind of freaking death wish?

Whatever. She needed to pay attention to where she was going on these unfamiliar streets. She could sort out her existential crisis later. With Klaus, maybe—he did always have weirdly good advice. Surely he'd had his share of existential crises after being alive for a thousand years. She'd have to ask him. It hit her suddenly how little she really knew about him. Maybe it was just because they'd finally had sex, and maybe she was just being a total girl, but she found herself much more curious lately to know how he felt about any and everything—not just her.

Caroline shrugged to herself, turning right on Clairborne. No time like the present to start finding out more about him. With Klaus hiding out for the time being (she actually knew someone on the lam, she thought with a smile, only with Klaus, this could only happen when she was with him) and her car starting to make scary sputtering noises, it looked like they were about to have plenty of time on their hands for catching up.

Thunder was rumbling followed by lightning splitting the sky when Caroline parked her car at the entrance to St. Louis Cemetery #1. It wasn't like any other graveyard she'd ever seen—there were no headstones or plots, just rows and rows of aboveground crypts and mausoleums packed in side by side, the aging and crumbling stone dwellings of the dead turned dark gray by the now pounding sheets of rain. She turned off her car, looking around and not seeing a soul in sight. There were a few other cars in the parking lot though. From what she could tell, these graves were far too old to contain dead that humans could still be mourning. And surely there were no tourists on a day like this?

_Maybe those cars don't belong to humans_, she reminded herself, taking a deep, nervous breath. Anyone or anything could have followed her here. She had no idea who was looking for Klaus or what the hell kind of mess she was walking into. _Stop. You're not some helpless little victim. You're a vampire too. If you need to fight, you can fight. _

Caroline put her phone in her purse, snapping it closed and getting out of her car, slinging her purse and overnight bag over one shoulder, walking with as much confidence as she could muster, as if she knew exactly where she was going and didn't have a care in the world, even though her heart was hammering in her throat and it was raining so hard now that it would have been hard to see where she was going even if she had done this a million times.

She was relieved when she made it out of the cemetery parking lot and to the adjoining neighborhood street, feeling less exposed, clutching her arms around her chest as she walked until she reached the end of the block and the long drive leading to the red brick manor lined by Spanish moss oaks on either side.

When she was close enough to see the manor, Caroline was literally left breathless for a moment by the sight of the grandeur in front of her eyes, shielding her eyes from the rain so she could look up. It was a sprawling antebellum mansion with four massive white columns in the front. The home seemed to have been somewhat inspired by medieval architecture as well—she could somewhat make out colored stained glass designs in the windows, and there was a circular tower at each of the four corners of the home. What in the world was a home this beautiful doing tucked away back here? There was no kind of historical monument registry, no sense that it was any kind of tourist destination. It seemed deserted, even a little run down. This was so bizarre. Caroline lowered her hand from her eyes, starting to walk farther down the drive, towards the back gate of the manor.

Suddenly, she sensed someone behind her, every nerve in her body suddenly tingling with anticipation, and something else…hunger. Her stomach even growled. Like she'd told Klaus, she'd been subsisting off blood bags like she always did but she realized she'd been so distracted by everything that had been going on that she hadn't fed at all today or much yesterday. _Shit. Shit. Shit. Go away, whoever you are_, Caroline wanted to yell at them, running her tongue over her teeth, checking for fangs. Nothing yet.

"Don't you know it's dangerous for a pretty little girl like you to be walking around all alone?" A man's voice she didn't recognize, cruel and leering, spoke from behind her. "Especially after last night…the cities overrun with monsters, or hadn't you heard…you afraid of monsters, pretty little girl?"

He stepped closer to her, reaching out to grab the side of her neck, and she sensed in that moment his own hunger for her blood. Caroline spun around, seeing that her instincts were right and the man was a vampire, and then her hands were at his throat, lifting his massive, overweight body off the ground and tossing him away from her like a toy. She was on top of him before he even knew what was happening, moving with inhuman speed and strength, Caroline straddling his chest, fully transformed now, her eyes dark red, surrounded by bulging veins, panting through her fanged teeth for his blood.

"No, I'm not afraid of monsters anymore. Are you?" she growled, before shaking her hair back out of her face and sinking her teeth into his neck, drinking her fill and then some, finding vampire blood even better than human blood, her hands clutching the damp t-shirt that was clinging to his flabby chest, unable to stop, unable to remember the last time she'd really, truly fed, not from a blood bag, but from a neck, felt flesh yield to her fangs—

"All right, all right, love, I think you've done your work. Come on, then." She felt a hand on her shoulder, heard Klaus' voice as if it was a million miles away, but ignored him, drinking more. "Caroline!" Klaus' voice again, but this time he seized her under her arms, pulling her away from her victim and up to her feet, blood dripping from her mouth, down her chin, and all down the front of her floral print blouse as she struggled against him like an animal in a trap, finally managing to wrench out of his grip, turning to face him, growling with fury. "_Get away from me!_" Caroline roared, not even recognizing the anger in her own voice, shoving Klaus hard in the chest, stronger than she'd ever felt, actually making Klaus stumble back slightly with surprise, Caroline laughing and licking the blood off her lips, holding out her arms as if saying, _"What now, bitch?"_

Klaus looked her over with a hunger of his own, suddenly moving with blurring speed towards her, seizing her shoulders with an iron grip and speaking with his mouth against her ear. "Darling, I'm really loving this new side to you and I can't wait to explore it further, but would you mind terribly if we did it inside?"

"But I'm fucking _starving_," Caroline muttered, looking over at Klaus' neck, suddenly having the insane idea that she could just sink her fangs into his neck right now and taste the sweetest, best blood she'd ever known.

Before she could give into one of the craziest vampire instincts she'd ever experienced and try to feed on an Original without their permission, Klaus pulled away from her, holding her out at an arm's length. He made no reference to reading her thoughts, but there was something in his expression that made her wonder if did know that she'd been planning on biting him. "I have all the blood you could possibly want in the house, Caroline. You can have as much as you need, all right?"

She just nodded numbly, breathing hard as she looked up at him, her face reverting to normal as the adrenaline rush faded. "I-I'm sorry. I couldn't stop. I don't know…I don't usually…" Caroline stammered.

"I don't care how you satiate your hunger, love. Do whatever you like. I would imagine that endlessly repressing all of your natural instincts when you're going to live forever is resigning yourself to one hell of a miserable existence. I just didn't want us to be seen out here." Klaus looked at her for a moment thoughtfully. "You know you don't ever have to apologize for who you are to me."

Caroline sighed. "Don't you mean _what_ I am?"

"You said there was a part of me that was human. Do you not believe the same of yourself?"

"I…I don't know. I don't know what I believe anymore." Caroline looked at him for a long moment, trickles of rain working their way down his face as he stared into her eyes intently. She felt nervous, looking down for a moment and not feeling any less nervous, noticing that his long-sleeved blue shirt was soaking wet from the rain and clinging to the muscles of his chest and stomach as they stood close together their bodies almost touching.

Klaus reached out, his hand on her cheek. "Go around to the back and let yourself in the house. There's plenty of guest rooms on the second floor with their own bath. You're welcome to any of them—get out of these wet clothes, take a nice, hot shower, have a rest, whatever you like, whichever room you like. Just not the rooms in any of the four corner towers. Those belong to my siblings. They're not to be disturbed. You understand, I'm sure. My room's on the third floor. You're welcome to anything there, of course. Just not my family's rooms." His voice grew oddly stern all of a sudden, and while Caroline thought his instructions were a little…okay, completely weird, she just nodded, and Klaus continued:

"There's also all the blood you could ever desire in the kitchen freezer if you're still hungry. Help yourself to anything you'd like. I'm going to take care of this…" he motioned to the lifeless body on the ground, "…and then I'll check over the grounds. I don't understand how he…no one even knows about this place, not even my sister and brother…it shouldn't have been possible for anyone but you to find it…unless…" Klaus trailed off, looking uncertain and anxious as his eyes scanned the rain-soaked tree line around them, searching the shadows for danger. "Never mind. You go ahead and start settling in. I'll be downstairs soon if you need me, all right?"

"Okay," Caroline nodded. He gave her a short nod in return, going to step away from her, but she reached out, her hand on the side of his waist. "Hey, Klaus. Wait."

"What is it?" Klaus looked back to her.

"Do you want me to just go? I feel like…you sound like you're dealing with a lot of family drama right now, and maybe I'm just causing you more problems…just if you want me to leave, please just say it now before…before we…"

"Before we what?" Klaus asked her, raising his eyebrows curiously.

"Don't be an asshole. You know what I mean." Caroline's eyes narrowed. "And please just answer the question, because contrary to what _The Notebook_ programmed me and every other female of my generation to believe, standing in the pouring rain arguing passionately with my secret lover is not super-romantic or awesome, it's actually really freaking miserable and cold, and I really do want to go inside and take a hot shower, but not if you're already trying to invent nice, chivalrous ways to sneakily ask me to leave later and not make you seem like the bad guy—"

Klaus took her face in his hands, kissing her soundly, Caroline closing her eyes, relaxing against him as they embraced, her hands sliding up his back to the muscles of his shoulders, sighing slightly with pleasure when he parted her lips with his own. It turned into a very long kiss, neither able to stop something that felt this good, the sensation of finally being able to give into an impulse that had been simmering between them practically since they'd met still so new and novel and addictive to both of them, both of them remembering that the last time they'd started down this road, they'd started ripping clothes off at this point.

But Klaus annoyingly summoned some measure of self-control from somewhere this time and looked down to end the kiss before any clothes-ripping could occur, Caroline clutching his shoulders for dear life, the wet fabric of their clothes outlining every curve of their upper bodies pressed up against each other, making her feel like there was little between them already, Caroline breathing so hard she felt dizzy. Holy shit. "So you want me to stay?" she finally managed to say.

Klaus stroked her cheek with his thumb, his other hand still tangled in her damp blond ponytail. "I told you that day in the woods that I never wanted to be away from you again. Of course I want you to stay."

Caroline smiled. "Okay."

"I'll be right behind you," Klaus promised her.

She nodded, reluctantly to walk away from him but grateful to hurry towards the shelter of the backyard porch, finally getting out of the storm. He'd left the back door open for her, and she let herself in, hoping that at least some of her clothes in her overnight bag were still wearable and not completely soaked through from the rain at this point.

There was a steady drip-dripping noise from her hair and blouse and bag on the dark wooden floors as she closed the back door behind her, and she could hear the sound of a grandfather clock's pendulum counting out the seconds, but other than that, the house was eerily silent. Caroline stepped in a few feet, the heels of her boots so loud in the otherwise near-total silence of the home that she felt on edge, like she was going to be shushed, like in a library or museum.

The back door seemed to come in underneath the grand staircase of the home and when Caroline walked in further, stepping out from under the grand sweeping horseshoe shaped staircase and into the center of main foyer of the home, she turned in a slow circle, shivering in her wet clothes, letting out a stunned little laugh at the sheer opulence (and keeping it real, self-importance) of it all—the massive golden glass chandelier over the entryway where every dangling crystal was clearly hand-crafted in the shape of an oak leaf, the stained glass windows with the Mikaelson family crest emblazoned on every panel above the front door, the floor length Oriental rug depicting an oak tree shedding a myriad of red and white leaves—every detail made it perfectly clear that this was not a home for a family who shirked from tradition and pride. And as she turned fully around, she could see that across the landing of the second floor staircase, painstakingly and beautifully hand-engraved in the wood in gilded block print, the Latin phrase—SEMPER ET AETERNUM. Always and Forever. Some kind of family motto, maybe?

Caroline then noticed that each baluster connecting the handrail to the balcony on the second floor bore a capital letter M, and then on each side of entryway, the descending staircases had letters on their balusters as well. Five letters repeating, five times, in descending order—E, F, N, K, R. Caroline walked to the staircase on her left, running her fingers over the sequence of five initials she could easily reach. "E, F, N, K, R. Elijah, Finn, Niklaus, Kol, and Rebekah," she murmured quietly. "The Original Family." Wow. This place was like some kind of monument to Klaus' precious family bloodline. And she had a funny feeling that she knew exactly who the four towers –"the family rooms"—belonged to now as well. One for each of his siblings. So they could all be together. Always and forever, apparently.

"S-Seriously, Klaus?" she giggled a little nervously to herself, feeling as though she'd just wandered onto the soundstage of some very dramatic southern gothic novel. "Subtle. Very subtle."

This was definitely going to be interesting. Not even sure what to expect to find next as she walked up the left side of the staircase to the second floor—creepy monuments to his two deceased brothers? A hand-drawn life-sized family portrait done by Klaus himself? An enchanted family tree like in _Harry Potter_?—Caroline decided to seek out one of the guest rooms that had a private bath. Creepy or crazy or whatever else this house was, if it had running hot water and a soft bed to sleep in, for right now, Caroline was happy.

A/N- Until chapter two!


	2. A King Uncrowned

A/N- Thank you guys so much for your amazing support of the first chapter of this story! It really means everything to me. I'm pursuing writing fiction professionally at this point in my life, and even though it's scary as hell to put my work out there, every time I receive an encouraging review or see that one of you has favorited my story or put it on story alert, it makes my day and keeps me going in the pursuit of my passion.

And with that, on with the story! Keep in mind, all that I'm really taking strictly from the current season TVD canon is the Klaus and Caroline hook-up in Mystic Falls and the fact that Katherine took over Elena's body. Other than that, the plot from here on out will definitely be my own spin on things. But don't worry—it'll be a wild ride, but a fun one, I promise. The lyrics within this chapter are from the jazz standard "If I Had You" by Irving King. Enjoy!

Fight and Not Be Slain

Chapter Two

When Caroline woke up, there was moonlight shining through her window. She had fallen into a very deep sleep during her nap, and was momentarily so disoriented by her unfamiliar surroundings that she wasn't even sure where she was. She had been sleeping on an overstuffed feather mattress, so plush that she felt like she might sink into it and need someone to throw her a rope if she was ever going to climb back out of the enormous canopy bed with plush gold velvet hangings overhead.

For a home that was so formal and overwhelming in every other way, the bed was actually surprisingly warm and cozy, outfitted with a red and gold damask print comforter over feather stuffed pillows with pillowcases and red sheets that were probably a thousand thread count and felt like absolute heaven.

The guest room was beautifully decorated in red and gold, and she'd found herself liking it once she'd settled in a bit and taken a hot shower, pleasantly surprised to find that the bathroom was fully outfitted with all modern conveniences. Her muscles had been sore from being on the road for so long (and maybe a little from throwing around a vampire who had to have been north of three hundred pounds), so she'd stood a long time under the pounding, steaming hot water, finally feeling clean and relaxed when she'd gotten out of the shower, discovering that there two white towels in the guest bath—of course embroidered with swirling gold "M"s for Mikaelson.

But Caroline didn't really care that this was place was little Mikaelson overkill—so Klaus liked putting his last name on things. People did that. Maybe this place wasn't _that _weird. She'd brushed the remaining blood from her victim off her teeth and tongue after her shower as well, feeling much more like old self once she was clean and minty fresh instead of muddy and gross and blood-stained.

Caroline heard Klaus downstairs after she got out of her shower, but it sounded like he didn't want to be bothered. He was talking on his cell phone, and he did not sound happy with whoever was on the other end, so Caroline decided to give him some space. She pulled her damp hair into a bun, changed into a clean bra and pink t-shirt with black yoga pants and socks, and decided to take his advice and get some rest. She was exhausted. Driving for long distances was always weirdly tiring, and everything that had happened since arriving in New Orleans hadn't exactly been relaxing. She idly wondered if she was going to have a hard time falling asleep in a place that was so completely unfamiliar, but she'd practically slipped into a coma the moment she bunched up the soft pillow underneath her head.

And apparently, she'd been more tired than she thought—she checked her phone for the time once she woke up and discovered that it was just 7:30— she'd been asleep for almost four hours. _Wow. Some laugh-a-minute surprise visit guest I'm turning out to be. I come into his house, take a shower, and pass out without a word. He might as well be the front desk guy who checked me in at the Radisson. _

Caroline climbed out of bed, stretching her arms above her head and yawning hugely. She took down her hair, hoping it was pretty and curly after air-drying in a bun, shaking it out, and looking at her reflection in the mirror, wincing slightly. Not her best hair day (night?), and she could see a definite crease left behind on her cheek from the pillowcase. There was also a little bit of drool at one corner of her mouth, Caroline realized, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. _Geez, not really living up to my surroundings here, am I_, she thought, quickly wiping off the side of her mouth, _the frizzy, drooly princess in the castle doesn't really sound like a tale for the ages. _Whatever. If Klaus was serious about loving her, he was going to have to love the real her, pillowcase creases on her face and all.

She brushed her teeth once more just to get the nap taste out of her mouth, dismayed to find there was still blood mixed in when she spit in the sink. Good grief. How much had she sucked out of that guy? What had possessed her to feed like that? Why had it felt so good, made her feel so powerful, when usually the necessity of feeding on blood was nothing more than a gross inconvenience to her? Caroline wiped off her mouth again, not wanting to be alone with her own thoughts anymore, especially when they weren't making any sense.

Caroline walked out of the guest room, looking down from the hallway balcony outside her room to the main foyer. She didn't hear or see Klaus downstairs, and most of the lights were turned down low on the bottom floor now that night had fallen. The only sound she could make out seemed to be coming from the top floor—sultry jazz music playing softly, definite scratches and catches in the song that indicated it was coming from some kind of record player instead of a modern recording, the long drawn-out notes of the horn instruments accompanying the man's melancholy, crooning voice perfectly. The music was so faint she could barely hear it at first, but it steadily grew louder as she walked down the hallway towards the center of the home, a wall bearing sconces in the shape of twisting, gnarled tree branches on her left side and the banister overlooking the downstairs foyer on her right.

Caroline rested her hand lightly on the railing as she continued forward, still a little groggy from the deep sleep of her nap that had been oddly dreamless—it actually felt more like she was dreaming now. The music and the mansion and the fact that she still hadn't seen anyone else inside this place was making her feel oddly sad and lonely and almost like she was a ghost here herself. This place could not look more haunted, but by who? Or what? She wasn't scared of a haunted house—please. After all that Caroline had seen and done, ghosts were the least of her worries. But she was scared of being alone. And something about the vast emptiness about the center space of this house made her feel as though she would wander around it forever and never find him and just always be alone, and that thought made it feel like her throat was closing up with fear.

"Klaus?" Caroline called out, the cavernous house mostly swallowing up her small voice.

There was no reply. She wanted to see him _now_, walking more quickly down the hall, reaching the second floor landing and following the sound of music playing to find an open door in the back corner of the landing that led to a twisting, narrow stone staircase up to the third floor. If the door was closed and Klaus hadn't mentioned there being a third floor, she would never have even thought there was anything higher than the second—Klaus' room was hidden away and secluded, his living space apparently contained in the vaulted cathedral like attic area above the main foyer. It seemed a little sad to Caroline that Klaus had confined himself up here like he was freaking Quasimodo, apparently judging himself not worthy of residing in one of the four tower rooms that he claimed were reserved for the "family" whose name he had stamped on practically every inch of this place.

She reached the top of the stone stairs, the jazz music louder now as she stopped in the doorway of his room, Caroline smiling as she just stood there and watched him for a moment. He was painting with his back to her, and he still didn't seem to have noticed her presence.

The room was surprisingly modern, especially when compared to the rest of the house. Its tall vaulted ceiling was made of dark wood panels on the right side of the v-shape and full-length windowpanes on the other that gave a stunning unobstructed view of the sky and stars. His room seemed to be a bedroom and painting studio combined, the left half under the massive skylight devoted to his bedroom, a large bed with crisp white sheets and pillows set beneath the slanted windows so whoever slept there could look up at the night sky. There weren't many personal touches to the room, but he did have a record player on his bedside table, its needle pressed against the clearly well loved jazz record that was currently playing. His headboard was backed against a massive bookcase that seemed to serve as the dividing line for the room, the case overstuffed with books, some old and crumbling, some new and modern paperbacks.

The right side of the room, his studio of sorts, had a long working table against the right wall with pencils and pens and chalk and thick sketchbooks, and then against the back wall, where Klaus was standing now with his back to her, he had a massive canvas and a ladder overladen with jars and brushes for his paintings. He was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt but no shoes while he worked on the beginning strokes of a panting that still seemed in its abstract stages, just dark black and blue and white brush marks now, but they were rapidly forming into the recognizable shapes of waves during a storm.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the doorframe as she watched him paint, her smile widening. There was something so inspiring about watching someone do something they truly loved and really had a talent for, and she felt like she could have stood there all night. But Klaus seemed to finally sense her there, turning around with a smile on his face as well, setting his paint brush aside and crossing the room to her, Caroline letting out a surprised little laugh as he took her in his arms, her hand in his, his other hand at the small of her back, dancing her across the room as he started to sing along to the song playing—

_"I could leave the old days behind, leave all my pals, I'd never mind…"_

Klaus actually had a nice voice, but he was over-singing on purpose, very dramatic and over-the-top, making her laugh harder as he spun her under his arm and then dipped her, Caroline breathless with laughter when he pulled her back up, her head resting against his shoulder as they slowly turned together, Klaus singing her the next part of the song, quieter now, his lips against her ear—

"_I could be a king, dear, uncrowned, humble or poor, rich or renowned…"_

Klaus stopped singing then, pulling back to look at her as Caroline looked up at him, her brow furrowed slightly with confusion as to why he'd stopped singing, she'd liked it, Caroline listening to the voice on the record sing the final lines of the song—

"_There's just nothing I couldn't do, if I had you."_

The record ended, the needle still spinning with a scratching noise but no more music playing as Klaus and Caroline just looked at each other for a long moment. She wanted him to kiss her—and he was definitely looking at her like he wanted to kiss her too—but he just brushed the tip of his nose against her forehead, breathing her in almost animalistically, threading his fingers through hers with the hand he was still holding as if they were going to keep dancing even though they were standing still.

"Did you have a nice rest?" he asked her softly.

"Yes. This house is…really something else," Caroline smiled weakly, not knowing what else to call it. "I definitely like your room the best."

"Well, then, feel free to stay up here as long as you like." Klaus gave her a mischievous grin.

Caroline licked her lips, her heart starting to beat so loud she was sure he could hear it. The last time he'd looked at her like that, they'd had sex so many times she'd nearly needed hospitalization. Why was he making her so nervous? _You! I'm afraid of you! _Caroline heard her own voice yelling at Klaus in her head. She cleared her throat, breaking away from him and going over to examine the record player. "So how old is this thing?"

"It's a 1923 Victrola," Klaus said, walking up behind her, gently stroking the hair off the back of her neck with his fingers.

Caroline reached down to the record player, running her hand along the top of the gramophone. "So then I guess you're not swearing off jazz music forever, even after what happened at the festival with your—"

"I don't want to talk about them," Klaus said. "As far as I'm concerned, tonight, here with you, they don't even exist."

_You make this whole house about your family, and now you want to pretend like they don't exist? _Sometimes—okay, most times— trying to figure out the innerworkings of Klaus Mikaelson proved to be a total mindfuck. Caroline turned around to look at him, his hand still resting at the back of her neck. "You don't have to tell me everything tonight, Klaus. I get it. Life is complicated. Family sucks. And I didn't come here for any of them. Just…are you okay?"

"Truthfully?" Klaus looked at her for a long moment, finally shaking his head. "No. No, I don't think I am okay, Caroline. But I think I could be. Because you're the first person in a thousand years who's ever bothered to ask me that question."

Caroline reached out, her hand on his cheek, nodding with understanding. "Everybody just assumes. And then you get really good at pretending. But you don't have to do that here. You don't have to pretend with me, okay?"

Klaus leaned forward to kiss her, Caroline meeting his lips with her own, the kiss gentle at first, but at a small sound of pleasure from Caroline, Klaus growing more aggressive, lifting her up with one arm, Caroline wrapping her legs around his waist as she pulled her pink t-shirt off over her head, tossing it aside before Klaus unhooked her bra with his free hand and Caroline shrugged out of it, Klaus giving her a brief, teasing look if to say _see-I-didn't-rip-this-bra, _Caroline giggling as he threw her down on the bed, Klaus climbing on top of her, Caroline hurriedly peeling off his white t-shirt, kissing his muscled chest as she unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, shoving them down around his knees.

"You're in a hurry, love," Klaus smiled, kissing his way down her neck and between her breasts.

"Well, I'm sorry, if I'm not the perfect little princess you thought…" Caroline breathed out, not sounding at all sorry but more than a little annoyed that he wasn't inside her already.

"I don't want a perfect little princess. I want you, Caroline. And I always had a sneaking suspicion that was all an act anyway," Klaus smiled, Caroline gasping as he took one of her nipples in his mouth, circling his tongue around the nipple until it hardened and he closed his lips around it, kissing and slightly sucking the extremely sensitive area just gently enough, her whole body starting to tremble, Klaus making his way to her other breast to do the same there, his warm palm and dexterous fingers continuing the work he'd started on the first as he did.

"M-Maybe it was all an act. No more pretending, right?" Caroline said breathlessly, arching her back with a shudder of pleasure when Klaus slid his other hand underneath the waistband of her underwear and between her legs, finding just the right spot to make her moan with his fingers, Caroline pressing her lips together hard, reaching over her head with both hands, her fingers clenching in the white sheets as she whimpered slightly.

"Stop biting down on your lip, Caroline," Klaus looked up at her, frustrated to see that she was still holding herself back after saying she wouldn't pretend anymore, "There's only you and me now, and I don't give a damn if you like to fuck. Scream your bloody lungs out. Let yourself feel something good for once in your fucking life."

He pulled the rest of her clothes off, throwing them aside, Caroline reaching up and bringing him back to her in bed with her hand gripping the back of his neck. She kissed him deeply, nothing left between them now, Caroline so ready she was about to grant his wish and scream, but more from sexual frustration than ecstasy, wrapping her legs around his and sliding her heels up the inside of his lower legs to encourage him further to get down to business as they kissed, the only man in the world who actually seemed to like foreplay seeming to finally understand what she wanted, Klaus letting out a shuddering breath as he entered her easily after so much build-up and anticipation that Caroline felt like she'd gone all KY-crazy on her lady business.

Not like she'd ever bought anything from that part of the Feminine Products aisle at the drug store before. That KY-Yours-and-Mine stuff was for couples who actually tried adventurous things. Or maybe KY was just for old people with dry vaginas or something. She wasn't totally sure. The Yours-and-Mine box with the black packaging looked all hip and young though. Very confusing. And those commercials for it where there was just a couple sitting on a bed smiling all knowingly at each other and then it cut to really loud music and weird clips of explosions and black-and-white footage of people water-skiing and waving before it went back to the couple looking all sexhausted in bed hadn't done much to clear things up. What the fuck? Caroline really felt like she should really know more about sex and all sex related paraphernalia than she did. Especially since there was a man currently inside her, and she was currently about to be having it.

Caroline looked up at Klaus, who seemed to be waiting for her to give her some kind of signal that she was okay before he did anything else—_probably because I look like I'm going fucking crazy_, Caroline chided herself, _just live in the moment for once, sheesh, Caroline_. She gave him a small nod, and he started, (fina-fucking-ly, Caroline breathed out, finding it was much easier to live in the moment when she was having sex with him), Klaus beginning to move against her with slow, rolling thrusts that she felt so deep inside her body she could hardly help but lose herself, Caroline's heavy sighs turning to some combination of _yes_ and his name turning to finally just crying out with every thrust of his body into hers, closing her eyes again, her hands sliding up to his broad shoulders, her nails digging in so deep towards the end that she wouldn't be surprised if she drew blood.

The thought of his blood on her fingers made her even hotter for him, Caroline imagining licking it off, drawing up her knees with her feet flat on the mattress, widening her legs to allow him in even further, Klaus pushing himself up on his elbows, his hands on either side of her face, sensing she was close, Caroline feeling his gaze on her face, opening her eyes, her vision slightly hazy as she looked up at him just as thrust into her and made her come, a very unpretty but honest cross between a scream, gasp and groan escaped her lips before she could stop it or fake something that sounded more like the perfect sex-scene-ending orgasm noises in movies, Caroline not even having time to feel embarrassed or wonder if he was judging her orgasm-face before Klaus finished inside her, sounding like he was pretty happy with the overall experience.

His head fell against her shoulder for a moment before he rolled off of her, both of them trying to catch their breaths. Caroline stared up at the ceiling, still worried she hadn't quite stuck the landing of epic sex right—it had definitely _felt _right to her, but she had the sinking feeling that she had sounded more like a dying animal than an epic sex goddess when she'd come.

She tried to remember back to how she'd sounded orgasm-wise in the woods, but it was annoyingly all still such a blur that she couldn't remember if she'd been such a spaz then. From what she did remember from their woodland romp (_romp_ was the word she'd decided on for it—she liked that word, and it made it possible for her to pretend that all of the insane forest sex had been some kind of adorable adventure instead of a slutty sexcapade), she thought she'd had her eyes closed during any and all big finishes from that day. Why did she have to look at Klaus at the end this time? People weren't supposed to look at each other at the end of sex! That was like opening your eyes during kissing or something! What if she had a totally ugly O-face, and now Klaus knew it? Ugh, Caroline felt so weird and self-conscious that she briefly considered just crawling under his covers and never coming out.

"That was fucking amazing," Klaus muttered, clearly not troubled by all of these confusing thoughts, leaning over to kiss her sweaty temple, smiling at her in a sleepy sort of way. "I'm never letting you out of this bed again, you know that, right?"

"Really?" Caroline turned onto her side to face him, taking care to cover up her naked body with the comforter. She wasn't really a lounge-around-naked-after-sex kind of gal.

Klaus' face fell into lines of self-doubt. "It wasn't good for you?"

Caroline reached out, her hand on his shoulder, shaking her head. "No, no, it totally was for me—I just…do you really think I'm any good at…" she lowered her voice, "…_it_?"

"Are we talking about something specific, or just sex in general, love?" Klaus traced the curve of her waist with his hand, a small smile on his lips.

"All of it. Any of it. I just feel like…I don't know…based on prior feedback…or lack therof…" Caroline muttered with more than a little resentment towards previous partners in her voice, "I just don't feel like it's my strongest area in a relationship. I think I'm a good girlfriend in a lot of ways—I can bake, I'm emotionally supportive, if I say I'll be somewhere, I'll be there. But when it comes to…" Caroline sighed heavily. "Okay, in the spirit of honesty, here it is. You're really good at sex. I really, _really_ like having sex with you. And I want to get really good at sex too so if we continue…whatever this is, you're not doomed to forever be like _'uh, yeah, way to go, slugger_,'" Caroline demonstrated the "nice-try" gesture every young athlete dreads receiving from their coach, "every time we do…" she indicated the bed, "…this."

Klaus just looked at her for a long moment before he burst out laughing.

"Don't laugh!" Caroline punched him hard in the shoulder, her cheeks turning bright pink. "I'm pouring my heart out here!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry love…it's just…" Klaus tried to stop laughing, covering his face with his hand. "_Way to go, slugger_?"

"It's an expression. Like in baseball. When the coach is trying to be nice to the kid who sucks at baseball. Ugh, forget it!" Caroline kicked him. "I already hate talking about this stuff! Don't make me feel stupid!"

Klaus reached over, seizing her by the shoulders, Caroline finally giving in and laughing too as he pulled her on top of him in the bed, Klaus smiling up at her. "Caroline, there is no woman in this world, no woman in a thousand years, that I would rather have in my bed right now. I have spent untold hours—days—thinking about every part of you. The color of your eyes—so blue they're almost violet. Your voice, your skin," Klaus started kissing different parts of her to emphasize his points as he was talking, "your hair…your mouth…your breasts…" they were both starting to breathe hard again, but Klaus wasn't finished, "…the way you walk, the way you smell—there's not a single thing about you that doesn't make me absolutely insane with how badly I want you, every second I'm anywhere near you or anytime anything even reminds me of you—which pretty much everything does, so I'm buggered anyway. And all of that was true before we even had sex, and would have stayed true even if we never had."

"And now? Now that we have?" Caroline ran her hand along the stubble of his jawline, wanting so badly to believe it was possible for him to want her as much as she wanted him, but trying to keep some semblance of a poker face.

Klaus grinned up at her. "In the spirit of honesty?" His smile turned into a smirk, doing his best Caroline-American accent. "You're really good at sex. And I really, _really _like having sex with you too."

Caroline shook her head, rolling her eyes, pinning his arms down on the bed, giggling. "Shut up. That sounded nothing like me."

"I'm being perfectly honest, you mad woman! How dare you doubt me?" Klaus laughed, playfully fighting her off, rolling her over so he was on top of her. "And besides, if I didn't like having sex with you, I wouldn't have done it with you twelve times that day in the woods."

"Was it twelve times? I couldn't remember."

Klaus looked like he was mentally calculating for a moment. "It was definitely twelve. I mean, if you count when I—"

"Um_, yeah_. I was counting that." Caroline snorted as if that was a given.

"Me too. And the time you—"

"Okay, Klaus, that definitely counts! That's one of the only sex things I know I'm good at!"

Klaus raised his eyebrows. "Caroline Forbes. Whatever would the Mystic Falls Beautification Committee think?"

"I won't tell if you won't." She grinned. "Besides I think my beauty queen campaigning days are behind me now."

"World-weary already, are we?" Klaus smiled back, kissing her gently on the lips, stroking her cheek as he looked down at her thoughtfully, his voice more serious when he spoke again. "Perhaps you're right though. Perhaps it's time for you to stop playing pretend in plastic crowns. Time to truly unleash everything you have inside you. I saw it the moment I met you. A hunger for more. A fire they could never understand. You always knew you were meant to be a queen, Caroline, since you were a little girl. I always knew you were meant to be mine. All this time, all these years, it's been leading us here, to this. You and I were born to rule as one. And there's nothing we couldn't do together."

"Born to rule what?" Caroline looked up at him, confused.

"New Orleans, for a start." Klaus leaned back against his pillows, his voice suddenly spiteful as he stared up at the night sky. "My sister and brother meant to take everything that's rightfully mine for their own. My city, my crown…they've even managed to seduce those away whose allegiance rightfully belongs to me…Rebekah and Elijah just couldn't stand the thought of looking upon their bastard brother on the throne. They're fine pledging love and loyalty and eternal faithfulness as a family as long as they can remain forever above me." His jaw tightened as he fell silent for a moment, mentally shaking himself out of some memory. "But no longer. They think they've defeated me. They think I've run away, never to return." He took Caroline's hand, kissing it, looking at her, his eyes dark and serious. "I have to show them that winning a battle is not winning a war. And with you here and safe, they have no chance of leverage. My brother and sister know full well that you're the only person in this world I couldn't stand to lose. The only person that I would do anything to protect, even at the risk of losing my kingdom. Again."

"But New Orleans is just a city, not a kingdom," Caroline said, not sure if she was missing something or if he had just fully lost his mind. Or maybe this was just some weird _Game of Thrones_ style role-playing? Was she supposed to braid her hair in interesting ways for this? But no, Klaus looked completely serious.

"You don't know this place yet, Caroline. But you will. I'll show it to you. And trust me, it will get in your bones. In your blood. And you'll see. New Orleans is so much more than just a city. It is a world in and of itself, full of ghosts and monsters and magic." He smiled at her. "And soon, it will all be ours."

"Klaus. My classes start again in a week," Caroline reminded him.

He dropped her hand, nodding and muttering to himself as he looked down, "Right. Back to Mystic Falls."

"Whitmore's actually not technically _in_ Mystic Falls…more like Mystic Falls adjacent," Caroline said.

"Oh. Well, then, by all means. Run on home then, love. Why wait?" Klaus looked at her, his voice suddenly cruel. "I wouldn't want to keep you from your surely scintillating schedule of drinking stale beer out of plastic cups or recycling your old high school boyfriends until you decide one of them makes you _happy enough_."

"Oh, shut up! Arrogant much? Like you're God's gift to women, living alone in this creepy shrine to your fucked-up family." Caroline's blue eyes narrowed into a glare, clutching the sheets to her bare chest as she sat up in bed.

Klaus' eyes flashed with anger. "Very astute, Caroline. Freshman Psych is already really paying off, I can tell. My family rejected me, and so I never learned how to love, thereby dooming myself to a life of bitter loneliness. Stunning insight, really. Now let me play. As much as you hate to admit it, as much as you run from it, you are a vampire, you are a supernatural being who is going to live forever, and when you are dealing in eternity, that changes things. But you won't face it. You won't face that you're special, that you're different, because you've been afraid every day of your life that they'll be onto you, that they'll notice you're not like the rest of them, so you hide every honest thought you've ever had."

"What are you talking about?" Caroline blinked rapidly, her eyes burning with frustrated tears. "That's not true—"

"No? Did you tell them about you and me? Did you tell them about coming here to New Orleans?" After a moment of indicative silence, Klaus went on. "Why not? You've had to listen to their endless relationship woes—"

"We're not in a relationship, Klaus. You're not my boyfriend."

"Then I am just good for a shag then?" He raised his eyebrows.

"N-No…"

"Then why am I not your boyfriend?"

"I told you…we don't want the same things…" Caroline said weakly.

"Bollocks. I want you. You want me. You figure the rest of it out. We're not together because you are determined to resign yourself to a life of utter mediocrity to prove that you're normal. You could go anywhere. You could do anything, learn anything—not just read about things in books, but see them for yourself. But you're choosing not to take that chance because you're scared. And because it's easier to return to what's safe, and familiar, even if you know it makes you miserable."

"I'm not miserable—"

"You're lying. You wouldn't be here if you were happy with your life. You would never have come to me, you would never have kissed me that day in the woods, if you were happy. I'm your last resort. Your dirty secret. I know it. You know it."

"Klaus—"

"But forget about me. Forget about what I am to you. Forget about everybody else, and think about yourself for once. What you want. If you go back to Mystic Falls or Mystic Falls Adjacent or whatever-the-fuck, you are going to waste your immortality on a lifetime as a bored housewife with a degree that you never use, probably end up married to Tyler, that fucking idiot who's shown you again and again how utterly _indifferent_ he is to you, drinking blood bags out of mini-cooler, and following the same friends around who haven't even called to ask where you are on your bloody _birthday_ weekend, listening to stories about their lives instead of living your own."

"A few of them have texted…" Caroline tucked her hair behind her ears, but Klaus wasn't done. He sat up in bed, taking both of her hands in his own.

"And, Caroline, every time I imagine you living that future, it makes me so fucking angry, not just because I love you, or because I want you to have everything in this world, but because you're throwing an eternal life of happiness away to try and keep everyone around you happy and thinking you're perfect…which, believe me, is an effort in vain. I have literally spent over a thousand years trying to force my family to be happy and to love me."

Her face softened slightly with understanding, so Klaus continued.

"But like you told me once, I fail time and time again because I never tried to understand them, so I have never had any idea how to love them or what would bring them any kind of happiness. I didn't care about Rebekah's broken heart or the fact that all my misdeeds hurt my brother in any way—they were just…pieces of a puzzle I kept trying to force into their proper places to make us a proper family. I thought when the puzzle came together, when we were all in the right places, we'd all finally be happy. But you were right—it didn't work. I never knew them, never really connected with any of them, not my sister or my brothers, because I never tried. I kept everyone at arm's length. Letting anyone in would be showing weakness, you see. And that was the one thing that I did understand about my father, the one thing that neither of us could ever abide—weakness. I was already the one no one wanted. I was already the freak hybrid. I wasn't even supposed to exist, and countless numbers of the world's most fearsome killers, including my own father, have tried to hunt me down and destroy me more times than I can even count. So I had to be strong. I had to make myself invulnerable.

"Tell me we're any different, Caroline. I decided I had to be invincible to survive. You decided you had to be perfect and untouchable so no one could get ever close enough to see any cracks in your facade. We've both been fighting our entire lives. We just wear different armor. And you can tell me if I'm wrong…but I think you're just as tired as I am of pretending you don't want a different life than the one you've been living."

Caroline looked down at their hands on top of the white sheets. "So what was your big solution to figuring things out with your family? Going Godzilla on downtown New Orleans? What exactly was that supposed to accomplish?" She looked up at him. "And why are you hiding here?"

"I prefer to think of it as _regrouping_ instead of hiding." Klaus said, letting out a weary breath. "But you're right. I don't have the answers. I know how to wage wars. And I know how to win them. But I don't know how to make peace. I have no idea how to make things right with my family."

"I think if you want to make things right with them, you have to be honest about what you really want." Caroline sighed with a small smile at the brief look of terror that flashed behind his eyes. "Klaus. Do you have any idea what you really want from your family? Like what were you three even fighting about? This time, I mean? Specifically?"

"The same old shit as always," Klaus mumbled evasively.

"What does that mean? What's the same old shit?"

"Rebekah's horrible taste in men. Elijah being a fucking self-righteous prick. And…the whole New Orleans issue."

"Which is?"

"I want it back. It's rightfully mine. My siblings...seemed to disagree."

"And when you say that it's yours…" Caroline's brow furrowed.

"I'm the king."

"Klaus. That sounds insane."

"King of New Orleans is a legitimate vampire title," he said defensively.

"Ohh-kay." Caroline grinned skeptically.

"You have to remember you're still a bit of a baby vampire, love. Ask some of your older vampire friends if you don't believe me. There's always been a massive underground presence of our kind in this city. And they've always had a leader. A king."

"What, no democratic elections for vampires?" Caroline raised an eyebrow.

Klaus shook his head. "I don't think that would work so well. Can you imagine organizing such a thing? There'd be rampant smear-campaigns…"

"Oh, totally, and stuffing of the ballot boxes…" she giggled, "…violent recount demands…"

"No survivors, surely." Klaus laughed too. "Vampires operate more under the take-power-by-force leadership style."

"And you did? Take it? New Orleans, I mean?"

"Take it?" Klaus laughed humorlessly. "It's already mine! I _built _the town of New Orleans myself from the ground up, for fuck's sake, and I ruled it well for some time until my piece of shit father ran me out. And I regained my power with relative ease when I returned this year, because, like I told you, this city is no normal place—it thinks for itself, and it knows when its true ruler has come back to restore order. It accepted my return gladly. I defeated a former protégé of mine, Marcel, to win it back and gain control of the three most powerful factions of New Orleans—vampires, witches, and werewolves."

"So what happened next?"

"Marcel…has proven ungrateful for my gift of benevolence in leaving him alive. He wants his title back, and has somehow won the support of a powerful coven of witches to back his claim with a brutal ritual called The Harvest that has given them formidable strength. And Rebekah, my dear sister and Marcel's former lover, has returned to her old ways and turned her back on her family to support Marcel's claim. Meanwhile, my brother Elijah has has been convinced by a pack of werewolves that they were being oppressed by my reign or some nonsense, and so he is fighting against me alongside them. Only the vampires have shown wisdom and remained loyal to me. Thus three factions, three Mikaelsons—"

"…and mass rioting in the streets," Caroline finished for him. She breathed out. "Wow. Most adult siblings that hate each other just have to suffer through the odd miserable holiday dinner every once in awhile."

"I don't hate them," Klaus said quietly, leaning back against his pillows again.

"Then tell them that. Say you're sorry."

"I'm not sorry." His voice was sharper than he intended, but he couldn't seem to help it. "They should be the ones apologizing to me."

"Well, I wouldn't open the conversation with that," Caroline said.

"I'm sorry, Caroline. I know you're right. I just think my family and I are finally past any hope of reparation at this point. This might have finally done it. The proverbial nail in the coffin. It's probably for the best, anyhow." Klaus sighed, putting his arm around Caroline's shoulders when she lay down beside him. "I just want them gone," he finally said.

"As in, dead?" Caroline looked up at him, noticing that even at the thought, Klaus' eyes looked slightly glassy, and he blinked rapidly.

"As in, out of my city. Out of my life. For good."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I have a very old, very powerful friend I've contacted who's agreed to come here tomorrow who possesses the ability to bolster my cause significantly." His mouth curved into a smile. "Elijah and Rebekah can use their influence and charm to win friends and raise allies and armies all they like, but they still lack the advantage. In warfare, the army conducting the siege is always fighting a much harder battle than the one protecting the castle for two reasons—the men protecting their home have more to lose, and they know every hidden crevice and corridor by heart. This town is my home, not theirs. And I still have my fair share of secrets and surprises hidden in this place that they know absolutely nothing about."

"Why do you want to win so badly? Why is this so important to you?" Caroline asked him curiously, her hand on his chest.

Klaus didn't speak for a long time, seeming to carefully consider her question. "Because New Orleans is the only thing in this entire world that ever belonged fully, unquestionably, honestly, to me once, if only for a fleeting moment in time. I was its leader because I built it, and I earned it, on my own. Not because I forced or compelled anything to be true through trickery or deceit—it was truly mine. And for once in my life, no one looked upon me as unworthy of what I had gained. I would do anything to feel that way again. I was respected here once, not just feared."

She wanted to tell him he couldn't ever recreate the past exactly as it had been before, but from everything she had seen in this house, Caroline had a feeling that would fall on deaf ears when it came to Klaus. So she didn't say anything, her head on his chest as Klaus' fingers gently traced her bare back, Caroline thinking that sometimes it felt like he was so easy to read, with the same insecurities and hang-ups as everyone else (oddly similar to her own in some bizarro gender mirror way, as he had mentioned), and then in moments like this, it hit her that he was thousand years old and had lived so many countless lifetimes before her.

She still had trouble wrapping her head around the idea sometimes that Klaus, the man lying in bed with her right now, the one that had just made love to her, who made her laugh, who she could tell anything, who had texted her first thing on her birthday, who had strangely proven to be one of the most loyal and trustworthy friends she'd ever had, was the same Klaus who had done all these other things in all these other lives, like the one he was describing in New Orleans once upon a time.

"Caroline?" Klaus' voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Are you going to leave?"

She looked up at him in bed. "I mean, I didn't drive all of this way for nothing. I don't have to be back for a week."

"And then?"

"I don't know," Caroline said honestly. "I kind of…just want to be here with you and not figure out everything else right this second for once. Is that okay?"

Klaus didn't say anything for a moment, his fingers threading in her blond hair as he leaned down and kissed her. "I'm glad you're here with me," he said quietly, and then they were both out of words, out of advice, out of explanations, just wanting to be together even if it didn't make any sense, even if it couldn't last.

Caroline kissed him back, her bare breasts against his chest as they embraced for a brief, feverish moment. She reached down and smiled triumphantly when she felt how hard he was already. Maybe he wasn't lying about thinking she was sexy.

Maybe she should just go with it. It was getting easier to believe he really did want her when making out with him for like two seconds was enough for Klaus to be ready for round two. Caroline took a deep breath when they broke apart for a moment. She could do this. She could do something different and give sexy Caroline a try, at least while she was in New Orleans. It could be like a whole new Caroline, her sexy alter ego, like Beyonce transforming into Yonce with that crazy new album where she'd basically just found fourteen different ways to sing about how much she loved sex.

Clearly unleashing the beast within or whatever had worked for her—she had gone from singing kind of boring songs about halos and if-she-was-a-boy that were trying way too hard to be deep in Caroline's opinion to awesome, fun songs about surfbort-ing Jay-Z in the kitchen, and the limo, and on pretty much every other describable surface, and she'd sold like a bazillion albums in a week. Get it, girl, Caroline thought with a grin. Maybe it was time to unleash her own inner gangster wife and grind up on that wood, as Yonce had so astutely put it. Caroline had listened to "Drunk in Love" and "Partition" A LOT on the way to New Orleans. Maybe it was time to stop only singing (okay, rapping—and not particularly well) alone in her car about crazy sex, full of secret envy, and just start doing it without worrying so much, she decided. Doing _Klaus_, more specifically.

Feeling a still unfamiliar but liberating surge of a fuck-it attitude that seemed to be happening more and more in Klaus' presence lately, Caroline used both of her hands to make him even harder. "Now who's in a hurry?" she mumbled against Klaus' mouth with a smile, climbing on top of him, sitting up and guiding him inside her, starting to circle her hips on top of him slowly, moving her hands to his shoulders as she leaned over him, Klaus groaning out "Fucking _hell_, Caroline," his hands gripping her hips. Caroline, emboldened by his approval, starting to thrust against him slightly harder and faster, Klaus sliding a hand to her lower back. Caroline followed his lead, finding that this position felt amazing if she leaned back slightly against his hand at her back, shifting slightly to support herself with one hand on the bed and the other on his chest, fully able to focus on the sensation now as she thrust her hips upward, _hard_, over and over, starting to finally get the expression of riding someone during sex—and understand why Rihanna was always going on and on about it in her songs.

Caroline's eyes were closed at the end, and she literally saw lights popping and exploding behind her eyelids, not even caring this time if she made some crazy noise when she came, not even remembering what all she had done or said or…um, screamed during, but vaguely aware that her throat was dry afterwards when she fuzzily came back to earth, falling backwards as if from a very far distance but really just laying back on the foot of the bed, staring up at the stars and suddenly smiling and laughing for no reason at all, feeling like this must be what it felt like to be stoned.

"Happy, darling?" Klaus spoke from the other side of the bed, looking fairly overwhelmed himself as he leaned back against the headboard, his hair messy and face uncharacteristically flushed red, looking down at his chest and examining scratch marks that she'd left behind with her nails…scratch marks that Caroline saw were dripping the slightest trickles of blood.

She sat up, hearing a strange pounding in her ears as she stared at the miniscule blood trails making their way down his chest. "Klaus, I'm so sorry, did I—"

"It's all right, love," Klaus shrugged with a little smile, wiping the small amount of blood off with his thumb. "Battle scars I'll bear proudly. I'm just glad you…enjoyed yourself."

"Should you…I mean, you're still bleeding…" Caroline stared at his muscled chest, unable to look away when the blood from the broken skin began to drip down again, such a small amount, but she wanted to taste it so badly...

Klaus raised his eyebrows. "Are you feeling all right, Caroline?"

Caroline didn't respond, suddenly dizzy, tearing her eyes away from him, grabbing her underwear and his white t-shirt off the floor, getting somewhat haphazardly dressed. "I should go. Downstairs. I didn't eat anything for dinner…and…" She climbed hurriedly to her feet, turning away from him as she felt her fangs emerge and face change into its vampire form, practically running out of his room and down the stone staircase before he could say anything, knowing that if she'd stayed another second she wouldn't have been able to stop herself from trying to feed off of him. What the FUCK was happening?

She raced down the grand staircase and into the kitchen, feeling panicked until she dropped to her knees and opened the bottom drawer of the refrigerator to find neatly stacked blood bags, seizing the first one she could grab and ripping off the top with her fanged teeth, sucking it dry in seconds, red liquid dripping down her chin like some demented version of an overeager kid at the beach with a Fruit Punch flavored Capri-Sun who hadn't even bothered to use the little yellow pointy straw.

Afterwards, Caroline shoved the refrigerator drawer closed and collapsed onto her back on the cool white marbleized kitchen floor, staring up at the starlight reflecting off of the crystal chandelier above the kitchen table. She'd gotten blood all over Klaus' white shirt and the spotless floor, but she felt so full and sleepy after gorging herself on blood that she couldn't work up any kind of energy to care or even move. She considered just sleeping right there on the kitchen floor, in his t-shirt and her underwear, covered in blood, still clutching the empty blood bag. Ever since she'd arrived in New Orleans, this insane hunger, a hunger she didn't even remember experiencing at this level when she had first been turned, had been hitting her like a freight train at unexpected moments…especially it seemed a hunger for Klaus' blood in particular. But why? Why him? Why now? Maybe it was something to do with all the craziness happening in the city with the witches vs. the vampires vs. the werewolves. But what on earth could that have to do with her?

Caroline sighed, suddenly feeling completely exhausted. That was another odd thing. Usually drinking blood made her feel much more awake and alert. But twice now, she had just consumed more than she ever had before faster than she ever had and then felt like all the energy had drained out of her immediately after like she hadn't fed properly in weeks. She closed her eyes. Maybe she had the vampire flu or something. That sounded like something lame that would happen to her. She turned her head, the marble floor feeling cool and comforting against her feverishly warm cheek. Before she could even worry about how crazy she would look when Klaus found her passed out in his kitchen like some vampire with a drinking problem, Caroline fell into a deep sleep.

"Please…please, let me go…I won't tell anyone what you did to me, I promise, I won't turn you in or call the cops or anything…I just want to go home…just, p-please don't kill me…I just want to live, please…" the young man begged, his voice hoarse and muffled from the make-shift gag she'd shoved in his mouth to try and keep him quiet, Katherine watching him strain with muscled arms against the handcuffs she'd used to keep him chained to Elena's dorm room bedpost.

Katherine turned back to Elena's closet, lazily yanking any of Elena's clothes that were even somewhat wearable off their hangers and tossing them into the black suitcase she'd found in the room as well. "Well, friend, as repulsive and pathetic as it is to me to hear a grown man beg, I do find your stubborn refusal to die admirable. You and I do have that trait in common. And you have been very helpful with the whole me-not-starving-to-death thing. So thanks for that." Katherine sighed, continuing to shove through hanger after hanger of boring tank tops and jeans and basic everything. This closet was the most depressing thing she'd ever seen in her life. She'd done the best she could with what she had. As soon as she and Nadia were out of this hellhole, she could get all new everything anyway.

Katherine zipped up Elena's small black suitcase, running a hand through the stick straight hair she was stuck with for now, coughing violently into her hand, her vision swimming strangely, Katherine catching herself on the side of Elena's desk, closing her eyes for a moment to steady herself.

Ever since she had taken over Elena's body, she had felt like absolute shit, almost like this body was physically fighting her off, rejecting the possession, and the symptoms had just steadily been getting worse. She'd been plagued with a continual pounding headache that made it feel like someone was slowly and steadily tightening a vice around her temples, had several severe vomiting spells that had left her sweating and shaking on the bathroom floor, and, worst of all, suffered crippling muscle aches and spasms that had literally immobilized her and brought her to her knees with pain, unable to do anything but grit her teeth and ride it out until they would momentarily pass, Katherine knowing that she would be totally defenseless in this state if someone was to attack her. Feeling defenseless was not something was used to, and certainly not something she wanted to continue. But hopefully all of this pain and waiting would soon be over.

Thankfully, Elena's annoying roommates were both gone for Fall Break, and Katherine had seduced this co-ed idiot and handcuffed him to Elena's bed so she could feed off him at her leisure while she waited for Nadia to text her and let her know that she'd found Katherine's discarded corpse wherever Damon had hid it so Nadia could destroy it, so there was no chance of any switching back between her and Elena.

From what she and Nadia understood about the Traveler Spell they'd performed, once Katherine had taken over Elena's body, Elena's soul would be trapped within Katherine's corpse until Katherine's deceased physical body was destroyed. Once the corpse was destroyed, Elena's soul would be released into the Other Side and Elena's physical body would belong to Katherine for good. But Katherine didn't want to risk raising the Salvatore brother's suspicion by sniffing around as Elena and asking too many questions about Katherine's corpse, especially when Elena and Damon were apparently broken up, so she and Nadia had decided that it would be best for Nadia to deal with the issue as discreetly as possible and let Katherine know when it was finished and they could leave Mystic Falls for good.

But her daughter sure was taking her sweet time about it, Katherine thought, checking her phone again. Nadia had texted her this morning saying that it should be done by tonight, but then she hadn't heard from her again. It was now nine o'clock. Katherine had anxious-packed, anxious-fed off the co-ed some more, done anything she could to distract herself, but she was still a nervous wreck. Maybe some good old-fashioned killing would calm her down.

She crossed the room, climbing onto Elena's cheap college-issue mattress that was now soaked through with blood, straddling her new friend, the guy looking up at her, finally beginning to weaken from loss of blood after days of her feeding off of him, unable to even work up much terror anymore. _I actually thought he might still resist, but he's just like the rest of them. Pathetic how quickly humans lose their will to fight for survival_, Katherine thought to herself. She'd been fighting for hers for centuries. "What's your name again?" Katherine asked him emotionlessly.

"Why do you care?" he muttered.

"For my victim scrapbook." She shrugged with a grin. "I want to remember this special time we've shared."

"Fuck you."

"Fair enough." Katherine sighed. "Sorry about this, random. I just really hate leaving loose ends. You live as long as I have, you learn that shit comes back to haunt you."

The poor kid's eyes filled with tears when she prepared to kill him, her true face and fangs emerging. "Oh, calm down," Katherine rolled her eyes, "You're almost dead anyway. This won't take long."

She leaned over him, biting into his neck and starting to drink when there was suddenly a knock at her apartment door. Her victim started fighting against her immediately, weakly calling for help before Katherine clapped a hand over his mouth. Apparently she'd underestimated him in his near-final moments, the little shit. "Shut the fuck up," she hissed. But he wouldn't listen, apparently getting a second wind, kicking and fighting and screaming against her hand. The knocking continued at the door, very insistent, and when it became clear the person wasn't going anywhere and her victim wasn't going to stop fighting, Katherine reached down with both hands, cleanly snapping his neck with one twist.

"See? I said it'd be fast," she patted his shoulder, climbing off of the bed and breathing in deeply, forcing her face to revert to normal. She used Elena's bedsheets to wipe off her face and hands of blood, quickly taking off her long-sleeved skintight black shirt, skinny jeans, and black heels (the only outfit she'd been able to assemble from Elena's closet that she actually liked), hurriedly grabbing a sickeningly simple purple tank top from Elena's closet and denim shorts, Katherine shuddering slightly, halfway expecting to break out in hives as she put on something so All-American Girl. Finally, she stepped into a pair of white flip-flops by Elena's door, pushing in the lock from the inside and closing it behind her so whoever this was couldn't discover that anything was amiss in Elena's dorm room.

Katherine coughed into her hand again, feeling slightly nauseous and feverish after moving around so fast, crossing to the front door of the apartment and looking out the peephole. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath. Damon Salvatore was standing there.

"Elena?" She heard his familiar voice on the other side of the door. "I need to talk to you. Come on, I saw your lights on, I know you're home."

What a creep. Bitch should have gotten a restraining order a long time ago. _I saw your lights on…_ Well, Damon had always been the thirsty one in the relationship a hundred-odd years ago—apparently not much had changed. But hadn't Elena's Barbie-Sunshine-Roommate said something about Damon dumping Elena? So what the hell did he want? And why now? _Elena. Be Elena_, she reminded herself, preparing to open the door, rapidly planning on how to get rid of him as fast as possible in a believable, Elena-like way.

Katherine forced her face into an expression of tortured heartbreak, even trying to work up some crocodile tears as she finally opened the door, pressing her lips together before speaking as if she was trying to stay strong and resolved in his presence. "Damon. What are you doing here?"

"I've been thinking…" Damon breathed out, leaning against the doorframe. _He's so nervous_, Katherine tried not to start laughing. _Damon Salvatore, always the lovelorn fool._ "Can I come in?" he finally asked, looking up at her, his astonishing blue eyes exhausted, Katherine almost feeling half-sorry for him for a moment.

"What's the point?" Katherine crossed her arms over her chest, proud of herself—she was totally pulling off this teen angst bullshit. This was even kind of fun. "You don't want me anymore. What else is there to say?"

"I never said I didn't want you, Elena," Damon stepped closer to her. "I would never say that."

"Well, that's how you made me feel." Katherine backpedaled quickly, turning away from him and sniffling.

"I miss you," Damon said quietly, walking up behind her, his hands resting on her hips, "I made the biggest mistake of my life ending things. Give me a chance to make it up to you."

"How?" Katherine wasn't really minding this part of being Elena—Damon wasn't being as much of a bitch as usual. And hey, maybe she'd get in one good lay before leaving town. It wasn't Stefan, but close enough.

"I'll do anything. I want you to punish me. You can tie me up, choke me out, feed on me—whatever you want."

Katherine's brow furrowed with confusion. Damon and Elena didn't really seem the type… "Umm…"

"We should probably fuck out here though. Or maybe in Caroline's room on her pretty little pink sunflower sheets. That's be kinky, huh? And just more practical. Might get a little crowded in Elena's bed with that dead guy you've been using as your human chew toy bleeding out." Katherine turned around slowly to look at Damon, her face hardening with fury, his mouth twisting into a smirk. "I mean, I'm up for _almost_ anything, but a necro ménage? I don't know, Kitty Kat, that's asking a lot, even for me."

Before she could do anything, Damon seized her arm with an iron grip, pulling out a syringe from his jacket and plunging the needle into her other arm, pushing down the plunger until it was empty. Katherine looked up at him, recognizing the scent, laughing cruelly in his face.

"A vervain injection? Cute. Creative. But I'm immune, honey. Or did you forget?"

"I know you're immune, Katherine." Damon smiled as she started to sag slightly in his arms, Damon tossing the empty syringe aside. "But Elena's not. You really didn't think this whole body-snatching thing through, did you? You've lost all your power, Katherine, and Elena's body's already rejecting your disgusting black soul, isn't it? I had heard that Elena was missing all her classes, not taking anyone's calls, and as much as I'd like to think that I was just such an amazing boyfriend that the lack of Damon in her life had utterly devastated her to such a point that she'd gone full Bronte, I know Elena, and she's stronger than that. So when I start to smell crazy, my thoughts always turn to you. I had my suspicions already, and once Stefan and I found Nadia trying to destroy your body, it all started to make sense. We talked to Bonnie, and she took a little peek behind the veil to inform us that you were dragging your feet in making the big trip to the other side. But no more running, Katherine. Stefan has your corpse with Elena's soul safe and sound inside, and he has your daughter. She's uh, not so good at the sneaking."

Katherine looked up at Damon, real fear in Elena's dark eyes. "Stefan would never hurt my child."

"Are you sure about that? Not even for Elena? For me?" Damon smiled when he saw a brief flash of doubt cross her features. "Fine. Roll the dice on that if you want. Even if he won't hurt her, even if you believe that much in your precious Stefan, believe this. I'm not Stefan. And I don't care what I have to do to get Elena back." He picked her up by the neck, slamming her against the wall. "I have been doing some research of my own on your little Traveller Spell. In the not-so-nice books. The Stefan-gets-mad-at-me-for-reading-them-books."

Damon shook his head with an aw-shucks laugh. "That darn brother of mine. He's like the mob wife who doesn't want to know her husband kills people but doesn't mind wearing the diamond necklaces he buys for her with the blood money. He basically told me to take care of this and leave him out of it. So I plan to. And sorry to ruin all of your fun, but there is a way to reverse the Traveller Spell. Permanently."

"And what is that?" Katherine choked out, Elena's flip-flops falling off her feet as she tried to regain her footing on the floor, Damon holding her up just high enough where she couldn't.

"I'll give you the direct quote. 'If the imposter entity inhabiting the living body is made to experience a level of pain or terror beyond the threshold tolerable to the possessing individual, the imposter entity will be forced out of the living body and back into its deceased form, thus expiring permanently and returning the trapped living spirit to its true corporeal body.' Short version? I torture you until you can't take it anymore, and you snap, involuntarily switching you and Elena's souls back, you burn in hell, I get my girlfriend back, and everybody wins!"

Katherine smiled weakly, shaking her head. "You could never do it. You could never hurt Elena. So you could never hurt me. Not like this." She indicated her body. Elena's body.

"You're not her," Damon reminded himself, but Katherine could tell that she had hit a nerve.

"So then do it. Beat the shit out of me. Hurt me." Katherine looked down at him, her smile widening. "You are such a pussy, Damon. You always have been."

"Shut up," Damon growled, releasing his hold on her neck, Katherine crumpling to the floor, annoyed with Elena's weak body starting to react more strongly to the vervain, coupled with the effects of the possession already making her feel like she could barely lift her arms off the ground. If Damon did want to hurt her, now was the perfect opportunity.

She looked up at him, her long dark hair falling over her shoulder, Damon breathing hard, Katherine almost feeling sorry for him as she watched him blinking rapidly, his jaw clenched and bright blue eyes shining with genuine tears as he tried to work up the nerve to hurt her and couldn't. He even knew she wasn't really Elena right now, it was someone he hated in her body, and this was still torturing him. _Just turn it off, idiot, don't let yourself feel anything,_ Katherine thought to herself. _If you love her that much, just turn it off so you can do what you have to do. _She didn't actually want him to be successful of course, but this was just pitiful.

"Look at you," Katherine laughed. "Look what she's done to you. You're really going to let your precious Elena die rather than hurt me?"

"No. I'm not going to let her die." Damon stood over Katherine, his words heavy with conviction.

"Well, then, you better get to torturing me, kid." She grinned, leaning back against the wall, starting to lose consciousness, but still triumphant. "I knew it. You can't. You are so fucking pathetic."

Katherine was unable to keep her eyes open as the vervain and fever started to overtake her fully, but she wasn't scared. Damon would probably just sit on the couch and cry for his lost love until she woke up. She was in and out for the next hour or so, and was vaguely aware and slightly curious when she heard the sound of Damon talking on his phone, but she was too drugged and out of it to understand anything he was saying, and eventually she fully lost consciousness again. But then all of a sudden, she was awakened by being lifted to her feet and thrown over Damon's shoulder.

"What the hell…" Katherine mumbled, all of the muscles of Elena's pathetic baby vampire body still feeling weak and sluggish as Damon carried her out to his car, throwing her in the passenger side seat, opening the glove box and taking out a pair of vervain-laced handcuffs, chaining her to passenger door. He slammed the door shut, walking around the car and getting in the driver's seat, starting the car and squealing out of the parking space outside her apartment. "Where are we going?" Katherine managed to ask, still barely able to keep her eyes open.

Damon didn't look away from the road as he answered. "Maybe you were right earlier when you said that I can't hurt you, not when you're like this. And clearly I don't scare you. But I think I might have found someone who can strike fear even in your sorry excuse for a soul. Someone who's proven he doesn't have any reservations about causing you immense pain…Katerina. "

"W-Wait…what are you…" Katherine felt like her entire mouth had suddenly gone dry. "Damon, don't do this…"

"Switch Elena back right now then." Damon looked over at her. "No? All right then. New Orleans it is. Your old buddy Klaus lives there now, did you know that? He was so excited when I told him that I would hand-deliver you to his doorstep. And he assured me that he just can't wait for our arrival. He told me he's making very special arrangements. A room just for you."

Katherine closed her eyes, digging Elena's nails into her palms. She could shut off her fear. She could withstand even the worst kind of pain. She'd done it before. She could do it again. She wasn't going to run anymore. She was Katherine Pierce. She was a survivor. Let Klaus do his worst. She would emerge victorious in the end, just as she always had before.

A/N- Until Chapter 3!


	3. Love and Control

A/N- Thank you all so much for your reviews and continued support of this story! I'm having such a blast writing it, and I hope you all enjoy the new chapter…now back to Klaroline in New Orleans!

Fight and Not Be Slain

Chapter Three

"There she is. Good morning, love." Caroline felt Klaus' strong arms easing her into a sitting position from the soft recesses of a mattress and pillows when she finally came to the next morning, Klaus holding her up as he raised a delicate darkened glass cup with fine gold filigree to her lips. "Breakfast in bed, if you'd like some."

Caroline raised her hands to the cup, tipping it backwards to her parted lips, drinking down what tasted like a mixture of blood and some kind of very expensive wine. It was delicious, and she didn't pause for breath, finishing the cup in three deep swallows, licking the remnants off her lips. She let out a long breath afterwards, everything that had happened last night coming back to her in a rush, suddenly feeling very ashamed of how bizarrely she had acted. Klaus must feel like he was dating some kind of drunk sorority girl (blood-drunk, but whatever) when he found her passed out in the kitchen and had to carry her back up here to the guest room she had originally chosen.

She was wearing the pink t-shirt and yoga pants she had left in his bedroom last night and her hands weren't covered with red stains, so he must have stripped off the t-shirt of his she had completely ruined at some point so she wouldn't have to wake up a total mess covered in dried blood, washed off her hands (and probably her face—she didn't feel anything left all over her mouth and chin from last night) and put her back into her clothes before letting her sleep it off. Caroline traced the patterns on the empty cup with her thumb, not wanting to look up at Klaus even as he sat with her in bed and held her. Why was he putting up with all of this from her? It sounded like he had plenty going on right now—why wasn't he just kicking her to the curb?

"I'm sorry about last night," she finally spoke quietly. "I'm so embarrassed…"

"Whatever for? Why did you run away from me like that? If you wanted blood, why would you think you had to hide that from me?" Klaus stroked her cheek with his hand, Caroline looking up at him reluctantly. She felt even worse when she did—he looked perfect. He was already impeccably dressed, shaved and showered, wearing a crisp white button down shirt tucked into black dress pants. She probably looked like a crazed homeless person.

But somehow Klaus still seemed to find her attractive, looking over every inch of Caroline's face with that same unashamed hungry desire for her that had always utterly bewildered her, Klaus gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You're not going to scare me off, Caroline. You couldn't. You must know that I understand all of your urges."

_No, you don't. And you won't. Because ever since I got here the only thing I want to do is screw your brains out and then find some way to feed off of you, and there's no way I can say any of that without sounding totally crazy, _Caroline thought to herself, but she just forced a nice smile on her face, politely setting the empty cup on her bedside table. "Of course. I'm sorry for freaking out last night. I just…needed a midnight snack, I guess." She laughed weakly, hoping that was enough, but she could tell by his face that he wasn't buying what she was selling, so she kept talking quickly and more than a little defensively. "Klaus, I was just hungry. So I didn't think and I just…took care of it. I mean, aren't you always the one telling me not to think so much and just…give in to all my… darkest desires?"

Klaus raised his eyebrows. "And these darkest desires of yours included… drinking a blood bag from my refrigerator and then passing out on my kitchen floor?"

Caroline grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck, deciding on a different tactic. One that sounded way more fun than scrambling for an explanation anyway. "Okay, well, maybe that wouldn't make my top ten list…" She leaned forward to kiss him, Klaus' hand tightening on her back as their lips met and he eased her back against the pillows of her bed.

"So this list of Caroline Forbes' Darkest Desires…what exactly would it include?" Klaus asked, looking down at her with a curious smile.

"Umm…" Caroline's hand tangled in his hair as he leaned down to her, kissing along her jawline and below her ear to her neck, "Well…I mean, just off the top of my head…sex at some kind of formal event, definitely. Sneaking off together, but somewhere we could still get caught, where there's still the chance of someone walking in and seeing us…both of us all dressed up, doing it in a coat closet or something, and then going back to the party, our clothes just a little bit wrinkled and messy, smiling at each other, knowing that we were going to have crazy sex whenever we got home…"

"Given this a bit of thought, have you?" Klaus smiled, pushing up her t-shirt as he started to work his way lower down her body with his mouth.

"Maybe." Caroline grinned, running her fingers through his hair. "Mystic Falls does have an awful lot of black-tie events. I don't know. The whole gown and gloves and old-timey dancing…something about all of it just always kind of made me want to….I mean, with the right guy who wouldn't look at me like I was nuts for suggesting it, it just seems like it could be really…" she trailed off, almost guiltily, "…it's stupid, never mind."

"It's not stupid at all—I know just what you mean." Klaus looked up at her from where he had been softly tracing his mouth across the waistline of her underwear, his thumbs hooked around either side of the waistband at her hips, about to ease them off entirely. "I think it's sexy as hell. Spending all of that time getting dressed up, seeing each other across the room, thinking about all the things you want to do when you're alone with them later, but knowing you have to keep a respectable distance in public, and just smile at each other and sip your champagne. You have to make nice party conversation with a person you've heard scream your name in the night. You have to pretend that you're not staring at their mouth the whole time they're talking or debating the quickest way to get them out of their clothes, thinking the whole time about what it will feel like when you finally get the chance to taste them, touch their bare skin again, when all you can do for the time being is feel the pressure of their gloved hand in yours when you take them in your arms to dance."

Caroline was staring down at him, her blue eyes wide, breathing hard. "Y-You sound like you're speaking from experience."

"I've been on this earth for over a thousand years, love. Yes…I've _danced_ with other women, if that's what you're asking." He smiled at her. "But that first night at my family's home in Mystic Falls…you in that blue dress…bloody hell, Caroline…I didn't even think it was possible to fall that hard for someone that fast," Klaus muttered against her skin, pulling down her underwear, his breath hot against her skin as began to gently kiss her inner thigh, his lips slightly parted so she could feel the warmth of his tongue against her skin already, before he started going down on her.

"I was trying so hard to hate you back then," Caroline smiled, letting out a shaky, blissful sigh when she felt his mouth between her legs. She closed her eyes, reaching back to grip the bars of the headboard, groaning when his tongue found and pressed against just the right place to send waves of warmth pulsating and slowly building through her whole body as he continued, Caroline's mind going to a quiet, peaceful place, nothing else seeming to matter when they were together like this, one of Klaus' hands reaching up to rest on her hip, the other sliding up between her breasts as her chest rose and fell in rhythm to her heavy breathing.

Caroline had no idea how much time had passed by the end, but her whole

body was trembling like a leaf, her heart fluttering in her throat, when Klaus' fingers tightened on her skin as he sent her over the edge, Caroline's back arching with pleasure, letting out a cry of release, her sweaty hands slipping slightly on the bars of the headboard and then just letting go as she collapsed against the pillows and let out a long, peaceful breath afterwards.

Klaus emerged from beneath the rumpled sheets to lie beside her on the bed, breathing hard himself, running a hand through his hair. "So what do you think now, Caroline?"

"A-About what?" Caroline turned to look at him, still slightly dazed.

Klaus grinned at her mischievously. "Do you still hate me?"

She reached out, her hand on his cheek. "I never said I hated you." She grinned back at him. "And I definitely don't now."

"So the way to Caroline Forbes' heart is—"

"Don't. Don't say it. I hate the word." She put her hand over his mouth.

He looked confused, gently removing her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. "Which word? Oral? Cunnilingus?"

Caroline shuddered. "Ugh, Klaus, stop! All of them. I don't get it. It feels like the best thing ever, but then every word for it sounds like you're at the doctor's office. There is just no even remotely sexy or even not gross way to describe it. Someone really needs to make up a prettier word."

"Prettier?" Klaus laughed.

"Well, yeah. With just totally normal vanilla sex, you can be all like, oh, we made sweet, sweet love and it was so beautiful—"

"Does anyone really say made love though?" Klaus looked skeptically amused. "I mean, out loud?"

"You know what I mean. At least there's a nice way to put it. With everything else, especially—" Caroline pointedly indicated the rumpled sheets to show him she was talking about what they'd just done, "it's like you have to turn into a rapper to talk about it." Caroline rolled her eyes, suddenly speaking in her best Lil' Jon voice. "Like, yeah, bitch, get on yo knees and suck my dick, and maybe if I like the way you swallow real good, I'm gonna eat out yo pussy out before I take you from the back, ya heard?" Caroline sighed, returning to her old self, blinking at Klaus with her big blue innocent eyes as if she hadn't said anything out of the ordinary.

"That was very…colorful, Caroline." Klaus sat back on his elbows in bed. "And actually, a very valid point about the American impulse to relegate sexuality with no chance of resulting in child-bearing to something that denotes degradation and deviance from the idealized norm."

Caroline smiled proudly. She loved that Klaus never talked to her like she was an idiot like everyone else seemed to, and actually seemed to think she had something to say worth listening to. "Exactly."

"Well, now that we've discussed our thesis topic for the day," Klaus smiled, kissing her cheek, "would you mind terribly a change of subject?" He shifted around on the bed, reaching over to the chair by her nightstand where he'd hung his suit jacket, withdrawing a small white wrapped package with a blue silk bow. "It does involve your birthday gift."

Caroline's eyes lit up, and she sat up against the pillows too. "You didn't have to get me anything…" she protested weakly, clearly thrilled that he had.

"Don't be ridiculous," Klaus scoffed, handing her the package. "Go on, then."

"Oh, all right," Caroline giggled, sitting up with the red sheets pooled around her waist, untying the blue silk ribbon and tearing off the white wrapping, gasping when she saw a dark gold box with GUCCI emblazoned in light gold letters across the top. Caroline had never owned anything actually designer in her life, just rip-offs of things she saw in magazines. Her friends didn't wear designer clothes, or own designer handbags or jewelry. She and Elena and Bonnie had to drive an hour if they even wanted to go to a mall and really shop, and there were definitely not designer boutiques like Gucci or Prada in that mall. They felt like they were really living it up if they bought something from Macys or Bloomingdales.

Caroline had been raised by a working class single mother, went to college on financial aid, usually shopped at places like Target or American Eagle, and always felt guilty when she spent over fifty bucks on any one item on clothing unless it was a dress or something for a formal, and even then, she tried to buy from the sale rack if she could and rewear shoes and jewelry.

She knew Klaus' financial situation was wildly different from hers—he had made that clear when he had given her a diamond bracelet that was probably worth more than her mother's house after talking to her once. The Mikaelsons owned multiple mansions and wore extravagant clothes without seeming to realize that other people lived any differently. Caroline still remembered one day in high school when she and Elena had admired a pair of ridiculously fabulous black and red high heels that Rebekah had worn—Giuseppe Zanotti, as she informed them in that snooty accent—and just out of curiosity, she and Elena had looked them up online when they'd gotten home after school, having to use the Google "did you mean…" feature about five times to get the crazy spelling of the Italian designer's name right, eventually tracking down the shoes and discovering that they cost $1,500. Rebekah never wore them again. She never seemed to wear anything twice, especially not shoes. Caroline's most expensive shoes were when she'd really had to splurge and buy her $70 cheer shoes, and those she'd made last for all of high school.

But Caroline knew it was crazy to even compare anything about her life to the Mikaelsons. They had traveled the world over, founded cities, and were rumored to have ties to actual nobility. It seemed that money was literally no object to them, and despite their many, _many_ family woes, financial struggle had never seemed to be one of their problems.

People with money had always kind of rubbed Caroline the wrong way—like the Lockwoods, who she always had a sneaking suspicion wanted better for their son. Especially Tyler's mother, who had always seemed to be waiting for her son to get tired of Caroline and for her to go away. Even when Mrs. Lockwood was fake-nice to her, Caroline sensed the mayor waiting for her son to move on to someone better. She didn't know if it was the her being a vampire thing, or the her being poor thing, or both, but it had always pissed her off that Carol Lockwood always looked at her with that pinched expression of mingled annoyance and pity, and, thinking back on it now, that disapproval maybe made Caroline hold on to the Tyler thing a little longer and tighter than she should have.

She knew that his mom always thought he could do better. Emotion-free Elena basically told Caroline the harsh truth that she hadn't wanted to face then that maybe Tyler was always skipping out of town on all of his crazy werewolf hybrid revenge (or whatever it was that week) quests to get away from her—basically the supernatural equivalent of just not being that into her. And something in Caroline just didn't want them all to be right. But they had been. If he'd really been the love of her life (and if she'd really been his), he would have fought harder for her. Or fought…at all. So now she had proof— she wasn't even good enough for the tortured rich boy of Mystic Falls—what in the hell was she doing trying to keep up with somebody like Klaus? Lockwood money was one thing—she had a distinct feeling that Mikaelson money was on a whole different level. How long until Klaus and his siblings looked at her with that same bored disdain she remembered sometimes noticing in the eyes of Tyler and his family, and Klaus and the Mikaelsons did the same thing, put her back in her place, back where she belonged, far below them?

Caroline realized she was blaming Klaus (and his family, to be fair) for things they had not done and that they had nothing to do with, trying to stay in the moment and not drag all of the stupid shit that had happened with Tyler and his mean family and their huge house and all that into whatever was happening with Klaus now. She removed the top of the Gucci jewelry box, unable to stop herself from smiling when she saw what was inside.

"It's beautiful…" Caroline breathed out, gingerly touching the delicate gold medallion, no bigger than a quarter, hanging from the thin gold chain necklace. The medallion was etched with a design of butterflies and lilies, with the Gucci signature inlaid within.

"There's actually a bit of a story behind this. The pattern on the medallion is known as the Flora design," Klaus said, sounding adorably nervous for Caroline's approval. "In 1966, Prince Rainier of Monaco was touring Milan with his wife Princess Grace. They visited the Gucci boutique, and Rodolfo Gucci, one of the original heirs to the design house's fortune, insisted she pick out whatever she like as a gift to the royal princess. When she requested a scarf, it was decided by Gucci himself that there was nothing in the boutique that could satisfy her request and also equal the beauty of the princess. So Rodolfo commissioned the artist Vittorio Accornero to make something worthy of her, and Vittorio created the "Flora" print for her. Princess Grace and her husband were pleased, and the design has been used in her honor ever since, on everything from scarves to dresses to jewelry. This style is the 18-karat gold medallion necklace—I thought, gold with your hair…the way it catches the light…it just reminded me of you."

Caroline smiled, shaking her head. "I love it. No one's ever…this is amazing."

"I know it's not an actual dress worn by Princess Grace of Monaco, but I thought…it is a little piece of her history, and a bit more conducive to everyday wear," Klaus smiled sheepishly back at her, "but if you don't like it—"

Caroline leaned forward, cutting him off with a kiss, her hand on his cheek. "I love it. It's perfect."

Klaus looked visibly relieved, his shoulders relaxing. "Shall I put it on you then?"

"Yes, please." Caroline grinned, pulling her blond waves over one shoulder, Klaus gently removing the necklace from the box and clasping it at the nape of her neck.

The medallion rested right at her collarbone, the perfect spot where it wouldn't keep slipping beneath the neckline of shirts but wasn't so short that it felt like it was choking her. Caroline looked down, releasing her hold on her hair, gently touching her necklace again with two fingers, unable to believe something so nice and pretty actually belonged to her. It wasn't some crap from the mall. This was real jewelry. Like family heirloom, legit Gucci insignia, actual 18-karat gold jewelry. She couldn't believe it. Was it totally shallow to like this so much? But it didn't feel like the diamond bracelet where Klaus had been trying too hard to buy her approval. They hadn't known a thing about each other then, so his compliments and gifts felt hollow, like he was just trying to win or something.

But now Klaus knew her. He had picked this out because he knew her, and knew she would love it. Caroline's eyes suddenly felt hot with tears. Nobody had ever put this much thought into a gift for her, ever. She remembered faking happiness when Tyler had given her that stupid charm bracelet with the football charm for her birthday (What the hell? Like she was some kind of football mom already? Who buys their high school girlfriend a charm bracelet with a football charm? Maybe his football number, but a football _charm_? Lord.) and he had been so proud of himself, and Caroline had let him put it on her wrist, and had the fleeting alarming thought of _Holy shit, I will be wearing this fake smile for every birthday and anniversary and Christmas for the rest of my life, _but she had just been so happy Tyler liked her back and a guy wasn't rejecting her that she had just pushed the thought away.

She hadn't been old enough to understand then, but things being just okay wasn't good enough. It shouldn't have been good enough for her then, and she wasn't sure why she had put up with it for so long. But now, looking down at Klaus' present, she had an odd moment of clarity about the relationship with Tyler that had dominated so much of her young life. Finally gaining some distance, she could see that, while Tyler did bear the blame for being so cold and distant towards her at the end, she wasn't totally free of any wrongdoing in their relationship. Caroline was slowly realizing that, even after knowing him so long, she had shown very little of her true self to Tyler, and that sometimes their relationship had felt so comfortable because it didn't demand much vulnerability from either side. It was almost too easy for him to walk away from her time and time again, because she didn't ask for any better or any more.

And while Tyler had done his share of hurtful things, she knew now that she had been pulling away too. Caroline had never outright lied to him, she wouldn't do that, but she had felt like she could be much more open and honest during her conversations with Klaus than she had ever been with Tyler, even while Tyler had been her boyfriend. Klaus didn't accept half-answers or fake smiles from her, and his refusal to let her just give her nice, practiced responses to his questions excited her and drew her to him. And even though she had never cheated, there had clearly been something already broken between her and Tyler (maybe something that had never really been whole or authentic) long before the end. And that was why the break-up, his icy rejection of everything he knew of her, had hurt like hell, but it hadn't destroyed her. Because she was starting to understand, especially here with Klaus, that there was still so much of her that Tyler had never even known or touched.

But now for the first time in Caroline's romantic life, something different was happening inside of her, and she was actually opening up to another person about things she really felt, maybe more than she ever had, and her own feelings for that person were starting to become real and scary and deep way too fast. But she didn't want to turn off those feelings off or and she didn't know how to go backwards at this point. Was that even possible? She'd already jumped. She was already falling.

"It looks perfect on you, darling. Far more beautiful than any princess. A queen." Klaus kissed the side of her neck, the sound of his low, accented voice making Caroline suddenly nervous as she tried to shake herself out of all of her crazily careening thoughts.

"T-Thank you," she said quietly.

"Of course. Happy birthday, Caroline."

"What would you do if I did stay with you? What would we do?" Caroline turned to look at him, her voice deadly serious, seeming to catch Klaus completely off guard.

Klaus pulled back to look at her, his hands resting on her legs. "Whatever we wanted."

Caroline shook her head. "No. Don't do that. I don't want some bullshit 'we'd travel the world and make love in the sands of Greece' answer. Tell me the truth. Like, specifics. I know that's not as sexy being like 'oh, Caroline, we'd rule the world as the king and queen of endless night for all eternity,' but just…like, don't, okay? I mean, yes, that does sound pretty awesome and usually I really want to fuck you when you talk like that, but then I get all distracted, so that's not what I want right now. Fall Break is over in six days. If you don't want me to leave, you're going to have to make a really good case for me to stay."

He looked at her for a long moment as if choosing his next words very carefully. Caroline raised her eyebrows expectantly, but just as he opened his mouth to speak, Klaus' cell phone went off in his jacket. She rolled her eyes, leaning back against the pillows. "Saved by the bell. You can just answer it."

"No, love, it's fine. It'll go to voicemail," Klaus waved his hand, trying to sound flippant, but Caroline could tell he was worried about something he wasn't telling her.

"Just answer it. You obviously want to," Caroline shrugged. "We can talk about this later."

"I'm not trying to get out of it talking about it," Klaus assured her.

"Uh-huh." Caroline picked at the fringe of one of her pillows, hearing his voicemail go off with a new message, followed by three rapid text messages. "You are a popular guy today."

"I'm just meeting with some old associates to try and get this family business wrapped up as quickly as possible. So I can be with you."

"Right."

"Caroline."

"What?"

"Look at me."

She reluctantly looked up at him, and Klaus took her face in his hands, kissing her soundly. "I love you. I'll be back in a few hours, all right?"

Caroline sighed. "Okay. I'm guessing it'd be pointless to ask you who you're meeting with?"

"You don't know them. Just calling in an old favor." Klaus said, annoying her by being so secretive all of a sudden, getting to his feet and straightening his clothes. "Believe me, you'll be happier here."

"Okay, whatever. I might go shop around a little bit anyway. I've never seen much of the French Quarter." Caroline stretched out in bed before swinging her legs off over the side.

"Caroline, no." Klaus turned from where he was slipping his jacket over his shoulders at the mirror. "I'm sorry, but it's imperative you stay here while I'm gone."

Caroline snorted with laughter. "Excuse me?"

"After what happened at the festival, there's a very long list of people in this town who want to hurt me. They'll know of my infallibility from Marcel. So what's the best way to hurt an immortal hybrid who they can't even get close enough to wound?"

"Umm…make him mortal?" Caroline suggested, following _Hercules_ logic. One of the very underrated films of the Disney oeuvre in her opinion.

"Hurt the only person he truly cares for. They're not foolish enough to go after my siblings, but—"

"Your little weakling vampire slampiece would be fair game?" Caroline raised her eyebrows.

Klaus rubbed his forehead wearily. "No, I just…now that Rebekah and Elijah have abandoned me for the rival factions, surely the werewolves and witches know of my affection for you as well as the vampires. There won't be an enemy of mine in this city who wouldn't see hurting…or—or killing…you," it seemed to pain Klaus to even talk about it, "to get to me as their crowning achievement. And you wandering the streets of New Orleans without me to protect you would be like marching out a lamb to the slaughter."

"First of all, I can protect myself. Second of all, what are you saying? I'm supposed to just sit here all week, waiting for you to finish your plotting? That's bullshit! You begged me to come here for years—"

"Yes, and you pick the worst possible time to finally take me up on my offer! My life doesn't just stop because you're here, Caroline!"

"But you expect mine to just stop for you! You expect me to leave Mystic Falls and everything there behind to be with you!"

"We talked about this! Because there's nothing for you there!"

"No, _we_ didn't talk about anything! You talked, and talked, and _talked_—so now I'm talking. There's nothing for you here either, Klaus! What, some stupid revenge scheme? More burned bridges with your nutjob famly? This insane obsession with power that makes you sound like that chick on Game of Thrones with the dragons that always starts yelling about her _right_ to the throne and it's just like shut up and get over yourself already? Give me one good reason I should stay here, waiting for you, if you're going to be like this!" Caroline demanded.

"Because you can't leave," Klaus said coldly, leaving her bedroom without another word.

"What the fuck did you just say?" Caroline hastily rearranged her clothes, following him out of the room. "Klaus! KLAUS!" Caroline chased him down the stairs, watching him walk out the back door to the rainy Monday morning.

She tried to follow him outside, but some kind of invisible barrier stopped her at the doorway, knocking the wind out of Caroline as if she'd just run headlong into a brick wall. She was momentarily shocked, but then panic flooded through her when she realized she was trapped, and she started pounding on the invisible wall with small, infuriatingly impotent fists, shouting his name as Klaus climbed into his white Mercedes and drove away from the mansion, sending up a spray of pebbles in his wake and not looking back.

Klaus parked his Mercedes behind the historic Old Absinthe House bar at the corner of Bourbon Street, turning off his car and sitting in silence for a moment. A light rain was falling on his windshield, the storm clouds still hovering persistently over his city. It was almost as if ever since the witches had completed their Harvest and he and his siblings had subsequently torn the factions of New Orleans so decidedly apart, the natural order of things had been so horribly disrupted that a stubborn darkness had descended over the town.

The police had mostly cleaned up the aftermath of the riot at this point, but there were still very few people out and about in the open on the streets, everyone with any sense having retreated to their homes to avoid getting caught in the crossfire until this battle between his family had reached some kind of resolution. There was a sense of the entire city holding its breath until someone dared to make the first move, and all hell could break loose again, and Klaus was determined to strike first this time. He had to gain the upper hand quickly and decisively if he wanted to end this war and have any hope of being with Caroline. If he hadn't already shot that to hell, he thought, remembering her understandable fury when he'd left her behind at the house this morning with no way out.

He'd had the home engineered with an incantation very similar to a reversal of the spell that keeps vampires out of houses to which they have not been invited. It kept people inside the property until Klaus himself gave them specific permission to leave. In his young mind, when he'd had it built, it was the only way he could think of to keep his whole family there together once he'd somehow managed to get them all through the front door. He hadn't ever managed to get his whole family there, or even ever really worked up the nerve to tell them about the home he'd created for them, afraid of their rejection. So the mansion had sat boarded up and silent except when he'd needed it for emergencies, magically invisible to the human eye, supposedly protected from all supernatural forces, a field of protection he'd had placed around it years ago—but then that vampire yesterday had somehow breached the perimeter.

But even if anyone or anything somehow got on the property, there was still

no way they could get in the house. And though it had been hard to witness, he'd seen the proof this morning that Caroline couldn't get out. So for now, even though she may be furious with him when he returned, Klaus had to keep telling himself that he could stand any amount of anger from her as long as he knew that he'd kept her from harm.

_It was for her own good. You were just trying to keep her safe. She couldn't possibly understand how dangerous it is for her in the city right now, _Klaus tried again to silence his guilt, the sound of her voice breaking when she'd yelled his name as he'd driven away this morning playing over and over again in his ears, climbing out of his car, locking it and taking the back entrance to the Absinthe Bar.

He gave a small nod to the heavily tattooed twenty-something girl with dyed jet black hair and multiple piercings behind the bar as he walked in the back door. She gave him a smile, tucking her hair behind her ear and motioning discreetly with her thumb towards the second story of the bar, Klaus seeing her emerald daylight ring sparkling on her middle finger. Her name was Natalie, and she was one of the principal vampires still loyal to him—he thought of her as something of a general of the Bourbon Street area vampires.

Three years ago, Natalie's family had bought and renovated the Absinthe Bar, first erected in 1807. Klaus had always liked the place, and had known it both in its original form as a stopping post for pirates and then again for gangsters and bootleggers during the Prohibition. He was glad to see it still standing, and even happier when he discovered that its current vampiric management. Marcel had turned Natalie, and in her first fit of bloodlust, she had murdered both of her parents (they hadn't been close, and she apparently hadn't been too torn up about it), thus inheriting the family business. She had been in Marcel's army of vampires when Klaus arrived back in town, but she had wisely switched her allegiance to Klaus after seeing his display of power with the coin, and had proved herself time and time again to be both a fierce fighter, known for her signature of ripping out the throats of werewolves with her fangs, and intensely loyal to her new king, allowing Klaus to use the Absinthe Bar's second story for his "business," putting up ropes and caution cones and telling customers that the second story was closed for safety reasons.

Klaus stepped over the velvet rope leading up to the second floor of the bar, and then the other at the top of the stairs, hearing the sound of jazz music playing from a jukebox in a corner. There was a long bar against the wall that took up almost the entire second floor, and the person he'd come to meet was there, sitting at the far end, looking out the window down to the streets below. Her graying hair was mostly wrapped up in an elaborate dark black turban, a few wisps escaping, an exquisitely embroidered shawl of gold and purple flowers wrapped around her hunched shoulders, the fringe from her black dress trailing the floor.

"Hello, Marie," he said, his hands in his pockets, feeling better already just at the sight of her, as he imagined little children who actually had decent parents must feel when they fell down and their mother or father were there to pick them up.

Klaus had first met Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, in 1845. Klaus had been leaving a bar in the Quarter to meet Marcel across town when he had seen a group of drunken men dragging a Creole girl into a back alley, the young girl crying hysterically, her clothes ripped as she struggled against them. She had made eye contact with Klaus, and he had intervened, most of the men dispersing at the sight of him, knowing his reputation as a killer, and the only fool who stayed, Klaus quickly dispatched, snapping his neck and tossing him aside without a second glance. He had helped the girl, who had shakily told him her name was Marie Paris, get home, and had discovered that her mother was Marie Laveau, a woman rumored to be skilled in the arts of voodoo. Her daughter had told her mother what Klaus had done for her, and she had told him he had saved what was most precious to her, and sworn him whatever magical protection or services he required as repayment of the debt she now owed him for saving her daughter.

Throughout the years, he and Marie Laveau had struck up a friendship unlike anything else he had ever known, Klaus finally knowing a truly maternal and caring presence in his life, and she had taken care of Klaus as though he was her own. He had protected her and her family from the many who called her a heretic, and she had proven an invaluable resource with seemingly endless power in the magical arts.

She thought nothing of his being a hybrid, and even helped him with spells to make the transformations less painful, or an eternal creature, sharing with him that when she was thirteen, she had discovered the depth of her own powers when she had been playing in the marshes by her home and fallen in the water, her bare feet getting caught in the roots of a tree and trapping her underwater.

She told him she had drowned—she fully remembered her own death. She said what came after death had looked like the hallway of her grandmother's house, the house she'd grown up in as a little girl, and she had been walking down the long dark hallway towards a closed door, her grandmother's bedroom, light shining out from behind it, and she had known her grandmother was behind that door even though her grandmother had died a long time ago.

But when she'd reached the door, and put her hand on the doorknob, she'd felt an unfamiliar presence standing behind her—not a malevolent presence, but a powerful one, strong hands suddenly on her shoulders. And Marie had known that the presence was trying to tell her that her life wasn't over. Life wasn't finished with her yet. So she had turned away from the door with the light behind it and walked back towards the darkness at the other end of the hallway, disappearing into the void, so dark that she couldn't see her hand when she held it up in front of her face, and suddenly the floor had disappeared out from under her, and she had woken up on the banks of the marsh, coughing up water, feeling real strength for the first time, knowing that she had come back from the dead.

She told him how, as she had grown bolder and more powerful, she had tried different methods of testing her power against death, jumping off of higher and higher things, staying underwater long past the point of drowning, trying to hang herself and just swinging back and forth by her neck, kicking off the tree and whistling like she was on a rope swing over the lake, eventually even having a fit of madness and plunging a knife into her heart, pulling it back out easily, soaked with her own blood but not feeling a thing. The wound had healed closed in minutes. "So we're not so very different, you and I," she had told him, affectionately smoothing his hair back off his forehead. The only major difference between her immortality and his seemed to be that she did age, but just very slowly, unless some traumatic event occurred. If something upset her, Klaus had seen her seem to age ten years overnight.

She had placed the protection spells on the home Klaus had built for his family where Caroline was staying now, making it invisible to the human eye, guarded from supernatural forces, and impossible to leave once you were inside unless given express permission from Klaus, and she hadn't asked him a million questions about why he wanted these things done, or why his family wasn't with him now. That was another thing Klaus liked about Marie —she just seemed to take him as he was, all of his oddities. He had saved her family, so she would help him build a home for his. And when she did ask him questions about himself or his family, it wasn't with judgment or hatred, like everyone else, just genuine curiosity. She and Klaus were unstoppable together, like mother and son, Klaus thought fondly, the true heart and soul of New Orleans, until it had all gone wrong all at once.

He had gone to her home one day to find her sitting by the window, a gray streak in her hair that had never been there before, tears slipping down her cheeks. He had never seen her cry. And her daughter wasn't home, which seemed even more odd, because Marie Paris was almost always with her mother. When he had asked about her daughter, Marie Laveau had just shaken her head. "She's not coming back." That was all she said, and it was with a tone of such finality that Klaus knew not to push the issue.

They never spoke of that day again, and not long after, Klaus had received word that his father had tracked him to New Orleans and was hunting him down, so he had to leave. He had told Marie Laveau that he had to leave, and she had hugged him tightly—the only time in Klaus' entire life he ever remembered someone hugging him, like a mother, like they loved him—and she had wished him love and happiness and told him that they would see each other again someday. Over the past century, she'd written him many times, but Klaus usually couldn't bear to write her back and tell her about the mess his life and family had become since she'd seen him last. He wanted to tell her that he'd found true love and happiness, and fixed everything like he'd wanted, that he and his siblings were finally coming to live in the mansion he'd made for them, that he'd made things right with all of them, but none of that was true. If anything, things were even worse with his family than when he'd been in New Orleans over a hundred years ago, and it made Klaus feel like the disappointing child once again to be facing her like this.

"You're late," she said without turning around, clasping her long, aged fingers together, resting her chin on top of them almost as if she was praying. There was a tumbler of light green liquid in front of her, but it seemed like she hadn't touched it.

"Deepest apologies. Personal issues held me up a bit. But I figured there's no real hurry. Neither of us are planning on leaving this mortal coil anytime soon," Klaus pointed out, walking towards her, "or at least, I hope not to be."

Marie turned around to look at him, the caramel colored skin around her dark brown eyes crinkling when she smiled at him, a little sadly. "Still running, are we, Niklaus?"

He stiffened slightly, squaring his shoulders. "No. Not anymore. That's why I came back to New Orleans. That's why I want to talk to you. I'm through with running."

"Come and sit with me, child." She patted the bar stool next to her. When Klaus obeyed, sitting down, Marie reached out, taking his face in her hands. "Something has changed in you," she said quietly.

"I don't know what you—"

"Niklaus." She placed a hand over his heart.

"Fine. Yes. There's a girl. And she's…I can't lose her. She's here now, and I have to keep her safe." Klaus put his hand over Marie's, his grip tight. "You told me once that I saved what was most precious to you. You said you owed me a debt. A debt I never collected. I never asked you for repayment in kind, because I never knew what it was to love someone like that. Until now. And I want you to stop smiling at me like there's not a fucking war going on and protect her, like I protected your daughter." His grip tightened further. "And I also want you to explain to me how some drunken idiot vampire walked onto the grounds of my home and attacked my girlfriend. The home you protected with your own spells and swore to me no one and no thing could possibly access without my express permission. If you've betrayed me to one of the other factions…"

Marie smiled in a tired sort of way, withdrawing her hand from his grip. "So some things haven't changed. You're still seeing a dagger behind every back. No, Niklaus. I haven't told anyone anything about the house. And as far as the vampire on your property, when the witches completed that gruesome ritual of theirs, those not belonging to their dark arts experienced…for lack of a better term, a magic "blackout" across New Orleans for the twenty-four hours following the Harvest. I found myself unable to perform even the simplest of spells, things I once could perform without even thinking as a child." Marie shook her head, her eyes darkening with anger. "Evil will never reign triumphant in the end, but it can sometimes achieve brief, fleeting victories. Those women had performed something so vile and contrary to the true practice of voodoo, that all of my previous spells, binding, protection, uncrossing—were all suspended for a temporary period. The protection spell around the perimeter of your home was compromised. Your friend wasn't badly hurt, I assume, or this meeting would be even less cordial."

"No, she's fine. And I checked the grounds. He was our only unwelcome visitor," Klaus said. "Everything's back in order now, though?"

"Yes." Marie lazily waved her hand over the cup in front of her, flames appearing on the surface of the alcohol and then disappearing when she waved her hand again. "I suppose we should be grateful one wandering vampire was the only one to find your hideout."

"Yes, I'm thrilled." Klaus rolled his eyes. "I need you to be sure. Not that you can do magic tricks again, but that my home is back under your protection."

Marie looked at him for a long moment. "She's safe, Niklaus. And even though she's angry with you, she's still wearing the necklace."

Klaus raised his eyebrows. "Not bad."

Marie shrugged modestly. "So now. To the business at hand."

Klaus breathed out. "All right, then. If your powers really have returned—

I need your help. More than I ever have before. I need you to pull out every trick in the book…anything that will end this war and free me from them forever."

Marie interlaced her fingers again and rested her hands on the bar. "Them meaning your family?"

"Yes. My brother and sister."

"And what of your daughter? And the she-wolf who carries her?"

Klaus looked at her sharply. "Who told you about Hayley?"

"I have followers of my own who have been serving as sources, spies if you prefer, masquerading as members of the faction of witches attempting to defeat you in this war. They told me of your child," Marie reached out, placing her hand over his. "I am with you, Niklaus, just as I always have been. And I will be until the end, no matter what happens. But you are facing foes more formidable than you ever have before, and every one of them wants that baby for themselves. The witches have used the murder of four of their own to gain power. It's the darkest of black magic. I don't even want to imagine what they would do to your innocent child to harness her power if they were to somehow…no. We will stop them." She squeezed his hand. "They will not win any more victories with such practices. I will not allow it."

"What can we do?" Klaus asked her desperately. "You mentioned something when we spoke earlier…some chance…"

"Yes. There is an ancient spell…one I do not believe they could anticipate and that they are not powerful enough to perform. They would be helpless once they entered the realm I establish for you. Not only helpless, but trapped. They would have to be utter fools not to surrender to us once they realized what we had done."

"Lure them into the jaws of the beast, and then snap its fucking teeth closed around them." Klaus smiled. "I like it. And you're sure it'll work?"

"Yes. If you bring me what I requested."

"The blood of a Petrova doppelganger. "

Marie looked at him, her eyes bright with excitement at the confidence in his voice. "Then you've found a way?"

Klaus' lips curved into a smile. "Don't I always? Meet me at the house, noon tomorrow and you'll have what you need."

She slid the glass of absinthe down the bar towards him. "Your little bartender friend downstairs brought me this. Said it's the real thing, not that watered down mess they make them serve downstairs. But I've never really cared for it."

Klaus grinned, picking up the glass, drinking down the bitter, licorice-flavored drink in one long swallow, the alcohol content so high that his eyes started to water as he slammed the glass back down on the bar. He held up the empty glass to Marie, laughing out loud as tears leaked from his eyes like he'd just peeled an onion. "To old alliances, then. And old friends."

"To family." She smiled at him. "The ones that we choose."

"Thank you. For helping me," he said. "I hadn't realized how much I missed being home. But this is where I belong. I see that now. And I don't intend to ever give it up again."

"What do you mean when you say home?" Marie asked him curiously. "How would you define that word, Niklaus?"

"The place where those who are your true family, those who are truly loyal to you, remain together no matter what, and don't ever leave you," he said simply. "Why? How would you define home?"

"The place where a mother tucks in her children at night. Keeps them safe." Marie looked very troubled for a moment, before looking back up to him with a bit of a forced smile. "I'll see you tomorrow, honey."

"All right. Tomorrow." Klaus kissed her cheek, getting to his feet, smiling and giving her a small nod before descending back down the steps and leaving the bar.

"So where are you now?" Klaus asked into his cell phone, turning onto the long drive that led up to the manor.

"Some piece of shit motel off I-59," Damon replied. "Our mutual friend spent most of last night puking her guts up in the bathroom, so she's still asleep. Elena's body is none too fond of its new passenger, and is fighting her off pretty hardcore, so I guess Katherine battling bravely through the night, clutching the sides of the porcelain toilet lid with no one to even hold her hair back, trying so hard to hold onto her evil bitch dreams of world domination just tuckered her right out. I know, I know. Poor thing. Try not to cry out loud."

Klaus sighed, parking behind the house and turning off his car. "Revel in Katherine's pain all you like, Damon, but start back on the road now. I need her here expediently. Or my motivation to aid your cause may begin to steadily lessen."

"Oh, save it." Klaus could practically hear Damon rolling his eyes. "You need Katherine just as much as I need you. And no, I don't care if that sounded vaguely sexual. Homoeroticism. It's fun! Oh, hey, speaking of things that are vaguely sexual—you haven't heard from Caroline, have you?"

Klaus' eyes narrowed as he climbed out of his car and slammed the driver side door. "It would be wise to refrain from referring to Caroline as a 'thing' to me ever again if you'd like to keep all of your organs internal."

"Interesting that you take issue with that but not the 'vaguely sexual' descriptor," Damon laughed, "You know, Caroline's complete lack of sex appeal has always been a tough one for me to figure out— because technically she ticks all the boxes—blond hair, big tits, such palpable daddy issues that you just know she'll be way too eager to please and give you tons of blow jobs—"

"Damon," Klaus growled, "If you ever touched her—if you ever _think_ about touching her—"

"Chill, chill. Just musing out loud. If Vampire Barbie does it for you, great. Bonnie and Stefan just wanted me to check in with you and see if you'd heard from her. Apparently they haven't been able to get a hold of her, she's not answering her phone, not at the dorm or at home, fill in the rest of the boring story yourself."

Klaus leaned back against his car for a moment. "I don't speak for Caroline. If she wishes to tell her friends where she is or what she's doing, that's her decision."

"Meaning…Caroline's in New Orleans and doing you?" Damon filled in the blanks, a note of impressed surprise in his voice.

Klaus ignored this. "You and Katherine will meet me tomorrow at noon in the St. Louis Cemetery #1. Outside the grave of Marie Laveau. You'll bring her because you know I'm the only way you can get Elena back. And Damon?"

"Yeah?"

"If you try anything…any pathetic attempt at a double-cross, if I sense any hint of betrayal…you should know—you are nothing to me. Neither is Elena. And I will have the Petrova doppelganger blood my victory requires. If you fight for my cause, I'll give you your girlfriend back. But if you don't…"

"You'll kill Elena for good, rip her limb from limb, bathe in her blood, I get it. Enough," Damon said, his voice suddenly just as cold as Klaus'. "Something you should remember too, though. Elena doesn't just matter to me. She matters to Caroline. Elena's her best friend. And if you don't bring Elena back just out of spite, or in some twisted attempt to punish me or prove your dick size or something—Caroline would never forgive you. I know the chances of you listening to this advice coming from a disgusting speck of scum on the bottom of your custom Italian leather shoe are probably less than none, but if you will listen, take it from someone who learned this lesson the hard way— you can't just be so fucking careless all the time if you really love another person. You have to actually think about how what you do is going to affect them occasionally."

Klaus didn't say anything in response, just hanging up his cell phone and slipping it back into his coat pocket. What the bloody hell did Damon Salvatore think he knew about relationships? Using that fucking prick as a means to an end was already proving insufferable. Klaus may have had his issues with Stefan, but he was wishing more and more that the other more tolerable Salvatore was the one providing this particular delivery service.

Besides, how in the world was Klaus careless when it came to Caroline? She had consumed practically his every thought since the moment he met her. That hardly showed a lack of caring on his part. Damon was just angry with the world because he'd ruined his own love life by breaking up with Elena. And now he might have lost her for good because of Katherine.

Which would actually be fairly devastating, so perhaps he should keep that in mind and show Damon at least the slightest mercy, Klaus thought, in a voice that sounded disturbingly like a conscience (and Caroline).

Klaus sighed heavily, letting himself in the back door of the manor. He was starting to feel like preparing for battle was like juggling knives, and that he just kept tossing more and more blades into the air. Lord, he could use something mindless right now. A good kill. A nasty fuck. Perhaps both together. He thought about Caroline's nine other darkest desires she still hadn't shared with him, and her recent bouts of blood lust, and wondered if any of her sexual fantasies might involve them killing together. He hoped so. He'd always wanted to share that with someone, remembering how lonely and annoyed he'd felt in the 1920's whenever Rebekah and Stefan would take a victim together at a party, sinking their fangs into either side of the poor sod's neck, already starting to undress each other while they drained the life out of whoever they chose for the night, eventually shoving the corpse aside and kissing with lusty, blood-soaked mouths, his sister and Stefan disappearing into their hotel room and leaving Klaus to make stilted small talk with people he didn't know or care about.

He was always the odd one out, the one left alone at the end of the night, and the possibility that he might have finally found someone of his own, after centuries of an odd fugue state of continual restless disappointment, made him want to hold on to Caroline and never let her go, no matter what.

"Caroline?" he called, his voice echoing into the vast foyer as he hung up his jacket on the coat rack next to the back door.

There was no response, but as Klaus walked out from under the main staircase, he saw Caroline sitting on the bottom step of the left stairwell, hugging her knees to her chest. He could hear the soft sound of her crying before he could even see her face, and Klaus hurried to her side, falling to his knees next to the bottom step. "What is it, darling? Why are you crying?"

Caroline looked up, glaring at him, her face swollen and puffy, tears still falling down her cheeks. "Let me out of here. _Now_."

"I was only trying to protect you—" Klaus reached out, his hand on her leg.

She slapped him hard across the face, the sound of her open palm hitting his cheek making a sound like the cracking of a whip, Caroline's lower lip trembling as she looked at him after, swallowing hard. "_Fuck_ you, Klaus. If you do not let me out of this house right now, we're done. It doesn't matter if you keep me in here for the rest of my life; I will never forgive you for it." She wiped the tears off her cheeks. "I've had enough of this confinement shit to last me a million lifetimes, okay? Everybody's always trying to lock me up to get me to do what they want, but it never works. And I sure as hell don't need it from you. I choose where I go. I choose what I do. You don't get to make those decisions for me. Nobody gets to make those decisions but me!" Her voice was starting to shake again.

Klaus looked at her for a long moment. "You're free to go, Caroline."

She pushed his hand off of her leg, climbing to her feet and walking out the back door without another word, not even closing it behind her. Klaus remained crouched down by the staircase for a long time, frozen with fear, not sure if he could face getting to his feet and turning to see her gone for good. Finally, he summoned all of his courage and rose up, turning around and looking across the foyer to the open back door.

Caroline was standing on the edge of the back porch. Klaus just watched her for a long time, Caroline running both hands through her hair and tucking it behind her ears, staring up at the overcast sky. When he sensed that her anger may have abated slightly, Klaus crossed the foyer and walked out onto the back porch to join her.

He didn't say anything, just leaning against the column on the opposite side of the stairs leading down into the backyard, staring out into the yard as well. He could hear her taking deep, calming breaths beside him. Finally, after what seemed like hours of silence between them, he spoke, turning to look at her.

"I'm sorry, Caroline. I'm not sure if that matters, but I am sorry."

"It matters," she said quietly, crossing her arms over her chest. Marie had been right—she was still wearing her necklace, the gold medallion resting just above her cleavage. She even idly played with the necklace for a moment before speaking again. "What were you really afraid of? Something happening to me? Or me leaving you and never coming back?"

"Both, I suppose," Klaus answered honestly. "Your association with me does put you in grave danger, love. I was telling the truth about that. But, yes…I was also worried that the moment you left this place you'd come to your senses and realize this was all a mistake. I couldn't stand the thought of losing you. So there was a part of me that was…relieved."

"Relieved?" Caroline snorted with disbelief. "To make me your prisoner?"

"Yes," Klaus said simply. "It wasn't as if I did all of this with you in mind, Caroline. It doesn't excuse anything, but you should know…what you experienced this morning was just an unfortunate byproduct of the…the, er, original construction. When I first had this house built…I wanted to ensure that I could keep my family with me if I could ever manage to get them in one place. So I had it engineered in a way so that…once the threshold of the home was crossed, no one could leave without my express permission. A bit like an inversion of the spell that prevents vampires from entering homes uninvited. That spell keeps vampires out. This spell keeps guests…in. I thought it would make my family whole at last. I thought we could finally learn to really love each other if we were all here together."

"If you trapped them here, you mean? You could force them to love you?"

"I…I suppose."

"But that's not real love, Klaus. That's control. Love is something that you choose."

He shook his head. "Bollocks. I didn't choose to fall in love with you. I avoided such human entanglements just fine for over a thousand years until you showed up and took a fucking sledgehammer to every area of my life. I would never choose this. It's bloody miserable half the time. Do you know how much easier my life would be if I wasn't in love with you?"

She leaned back against the column opposite him, looking at him with those beautiful, dark blue eyes. "Well, then, if I make you miserable half the time, what are we even doing? Why am I even here?"

"The bloody miserable half is the time I've been here in New Orleans without you, Caroline! I thought it was hard before, in Mystic Falls when I had to watch you be with someone else. Pretend I was fine with just being your friend. Act like there was nothing between us when we both knew there was. But at least then, I had something to hold onto, some small part of you, the slightest sliver of hope. And I just loved being with you, in any way you'd let me. But then your graduation happened, and all of that madness, and everyone's lives diverged, and everything changed so quickly, and it was as though I'd lost you even though I knew you were never really mine. That was why I came back, that day in the woods. I just had to know I hadn't made it all up. That there had been something between us. That at least some small part of you had at least cared for me, when it felt like the memory of you was eating me alive. And then we were together, and it was so amazing, and then you were really here all of a sudden, and I…I just…I don't know what the bloody fucking hell I'm doing with any of this. I just want you with me, more than anything, and I should have just told you that this morning, but I was afraid. I'm so sorry that I hurt you. I just don't know how to lose you again, not after everything, not now, after…" Klaus trailed off, running a hand over his hair.

"After we've really been together," Caroline finished for him. "I get that." She breathed out heavily. "Thank you for being honest with me. And I…I missed you too. After graduation. I hated that you were gone. I mean, even with everything else between us, the attraction or connection or whatever…I felt like I lost one of my best friends. And it did happen so fast." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Why did you leave so fast? What was so important here in New Orleans?"

"The city was on the verge of an uprising. If I hadn't gotten here when I did, New Orleans would probably be a pile of ashes right now," Klaus said, hating the feeling of the half-truth coming out of his mouth.

Caroline nodded, looking back out at the yard. "What was it like when you went out today in the city? Still Threat Level Red, or have things calmed down at all?"

Klaus smiled slightly. "You feeling a bit stir-crazy?"

"Oh, I don't know. I just spent the last three hours sobbing hysterically on your staircase. Maybe a little," Caroline said, still a bite of acidity in her voice.

"Well…since I seem utterly incapable of refusing you for long…" Klaus sighed, "if we're very careful and very discreet…I might know a place we could get dinner at a private location where you could see the city without us attracting too much undue attention."

"Really?" Caroline smiled hopefully.

"I suppose. It's still a risk, but if you're not living dangerously, you're not really living at all, are you? And you have to promise me you won't object to coming back here right after dinner. The less we're out on the streets the better. At least until I've organized my first move. It shouldn't be much longer…there's one more element I need in my possession that I should be able to procure tomorrow, and then things should begin moving very quickly, I promise."

"Are you going to fill me in on this grand plan of yours anytime soon?" Caroline asked.

"If you'd like. We can talk about it over dinner." Klaus crossed to her with a smile. "I didn't know it would interest you."

"Well, it does." Her lips curved up teasingly. "I mean, what kind of queen would I be if I didn't even know how we're achieving world domination, right?"

"Laugh all you want, Caroline." Klaus sighed, unable to help grinning back. "But it's not _world_ domination. Not yet, anyway."

"Maybe next year, huh?" she giggled.

"Don't get greedy now, love," he said, making her laugh and Klaus leaned forward, kissing her gently, not even really meaning to do it and maybe pushing his luck, but unable to help himself. He took it as a good sign that she didn't shove him away from her, but the kiss wasn't exactly fireworks, Caroline clearly still upset, her mouth closed against his, turning her head and breaking the kiss after a few seconds.

"S-Sorry. I shouldn't have…" Klaus trailed off awkwardly.

"It's fine." Caroline ran a hand through her hair. "Don't worry about it."

"What can I do to make things right? I'm sorry. I'm sorry for how I acted. I'm sorry I hurt you. Just…tell me what you want."

"Dinner's a good start," Caroline said. "But I can't…I can't just pretend like nothing happened, okay? That really freaked me out. For…a lot of reasons."

Klaus looked at her, smoothing her hair back behind her ear curiously. "You said something about confinement, love."

Caroline blinked rapidly, her eyes filling with tears. "That was…just a lot of shit that doesn't have anything to do with you. But if you're going to be with me…"

"I want to know. I want to know everything, Caroline. You can tell me."

She looked up at him, tears slipping down her cheeks. "When I first became a vampire…it was a really awful time for me. I didn't handle my transition well. None of it was really my decision. I just kind of…had to figure out a lot of it on my own, and I didn't do the best job. Some people…when they found out, they turned their backs on me, decided I was a monster, wanted to…fix me." Caroline's voice caught in her throat.

"What people?" Klaus asked, his hands on her shoulders.

"There's plenty of people in Mystic Falls who hate vampires. They thought they could make me change. Put me back the way I was. It didn't work, obviously." She tried to force a laugh, swallowing hard. "And they _hated_ me for it. For what I had become. When it wasn't even my fucking choice." She couldn't keep it inside any longer, her voice finally breaking as she started crying again. Klaus was overwhelmed for a moment, but then just operated on instinct, wrapping his arms around her, Caroline burying her face in his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his neck as she hugged him back tightly, Klaus stroking her hair with one hand as she cried, Klaus speaking softly, comfortingly. "Caroline…"

"They tried everything. They tortured me. Locked me up. They said there was something wrong inside of me, and that I was never going to be okay again." Her fingers dug in tighter to his back as her shoulders shook with crying. "My own _father_…"

Klaus was horrified but could certainly empathize with fathers acting like total fucking assholes, and he sensed that Caroline hadn't talked about this often if at all since it had happened, so he didn't press her for any more information. If she wanted to say more, she would.

"I'm so sorry, Caroline." He wanted to tell her everything he saw so clearly, all the things that seemed so apparent to him but not to her—like how the fools of Mystic Falls had only tried (and failed) to change or silence her because they sensed her power, sensed she was a threat to them, knew her greatness even before she did, but it didn't seem the time. She didn't want some stirring speech right now. Perhaps it wasn't always the time to give big speeches. Right now, she just seemed like she wanted him to hold her, so he did, until she cried herself out, Caroline just resting her head against his shoulder until her breathing returning to normal.

After awhile, Caroline pulled back to look at him, her eyes still slightly red and swollen, but her expression oddly thoughtful, surprising Klaus when she reached up, her hand on his cheek. "How do they do it? How do parents hate their own kids? Like why do they bother even having us in the first place? I mean, my dad's gay. I can't even really believe he got through sex the one time they had me. It seems like a lot of trouble to go through, just for my dad to hate me, you know? Why did he even fucking bother?"

Klaus sighed thoughtfully. "I've actually wondered along similar lines my whole life. Not the gay thing, but more why didn't my mum just fake a fall down the stairs or something when she found out she was pregnant with me? Save herself a lot of trouble with our dear old dad. Could have prevented the whole war between the vampires and werewolves and the entire hybrid race from existing, actually."

"Changed the whole universe. But the vampires and werewolves were probably always going to fight each other anyway. You can't blame yourself for that. I mean, watch the _Underworld_ movies. Or don't. They're not very good. But vampires vs. werewolves—totally inevitable." Caroline mused, her arms still around Klaus' neck. "And maybe this is weird to say or whatever, but I'm glad your mom got freaky with that werewolf and had you. I mean, I'm sorry your dad was such a dick about it but…now you're here. So it was all worth it."

Klaus smiled. "Well, then, allow _me_ to also say something equally weird and tell you that I'm glad your parents went through the act at least once and had you. I'm so sorry for all the shit your father put you through, but as you said—it all came together so well, I can't fault his existence entirely."

Caroline rolled her eyes with a little laugh. "You charmer." Klaus laughed as well, and Caroline stroked his cheek with her hand. "You have such a nice smile," Caroline said quietly, "Your real smile. The one you hardly ever show anyone. Not your smile when you're making fun of people, or smirking about something bad that you've done, but just your real, sweet smile. I love it. You actually have dimples. I bet you were the cutest little baby in the world."

"I really wouldn't know. Not too many cameras lying around in the ninth century." Klaus shrugged, blushing slightly. "Shall we get ready for dinner?"

"Yeah, I don't have anything that nice—just like one sort of okay dress—this isn't going to be super-fancy, right?" Caroline asked.

"You could wrap yourself in a shower curtain and look gorgeous, love."

"Klaus."

"It'll just be the two of us. Wear whatever you like."

"Okay." Caroline looked up at him. "Thank you for listening to me."

"Of course." Klaus rested his hands on her hips. "Thank you for staying with me."

Caroline nodded. "We said we're going to be honest with each other about everything, right?"

"Right," Klaus said a little nervously.

"When I'm with you—ever since I got here, ever since the woods actually—even today when I wanted to kill you—I've been feeling…things…everything, actually…more deeply than I ever have before. Sex, and hunger, and…other things too."

"What things?" Klaus asked.

"I can't." Caroline looked down briefly, shaking her head. "I'm not ready to say it yet, Klaus. It's a really big deal to me when I do say it, and I can't until I'm absolutely sure."

"I'd never told anyone else that I loved them, Caroline, don't act like it was nothing for me to say it," Klaus said more than a little defensively.

"Never?" Caroline blinked with surprise.

"Not until you, no."

"Wow. I…" Caroline swallowed hard. "I just wanted you to know…it's not off the table for me. Not at all. I'm not just here—for some kind of fling or something, okay? That's not how I operate, and I think you know that, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that. I just need to be able to trust you. I need to know that you're not going to pull crazy shit like you did this morning if I stay. Promise me I can trust you. Promise me I'm not wasting my time."

"You're not wasting your time. I promise." Klaus kissed her briefly on the tip of the nose this time, trying to be respectful of their post-fight distance.

"Good." Caroline surprised him by pulling him back down to her afterwards and kissing him on the mouth, a surprisingly long and open-mouthed kiss, Caroline almost seeming to be trying to figure something out from the embrace, finding some kind of answer when Klaus wasn't even sure what question she was asking.

When they broke apart, she was slightly breathless and rosy-cheeked, but seemed satisfied, having found out whatever she wanted to know.

"What was that for?" Klaus asked, more than a little flustered himself, wondering if girls could ever possibly understand how incredibly cruel it was to kiss a man like that and then abruptly end things there.

Caroline blinked innocently. "I don't know. Am I not allowed to kiss you?"

"No, of course you are. That was just a hell of a kiss—I thought you were still angry with me."

"I am still angry at you," Caroline said with a small smile, pulling away from him. "Now I'm going to go shower and get ready for dinner. Meet you downstairs in like an hour?"

"Whatever you say, Caroline." Klaus leaned back against the column, missing her the second she stepped back inside the house.

"Can you turn the air conditioner up, please?" Katherine leaned back against the headrest, rubbing her forehead, still looking pale and nauseous as classic rock music played on the radio. "And that repulsive music off?"

"I do not drive in silence. It is against my religion. Listening to music is one of the best parts about road trips." Damon looked over at her. "Which, may I say, you, Katherine Pierce, are officially the worst road trip buddy in the world."

"Maybe that's because road trips are not usually taken by force, I'm not your 'buddy,' Damon, and you're driving me away from my daughter and towards my mortal enemy so he can torture me to death," Katherine muttered, pulling at her handcuffs more out of habit than anything else, knowing Elena's body was helpless in this state. She sighed miserably and they both watched the mile markers pass by without speaking until Katherine couldn't seem to stand just the drone of the radio, giving up and talking to him. "So I heard you talking to Klaus this morning. He's really fucking Mary Sunshine?"

"Seems that way." Damon shrugged. "Isn't that sweet? Tale as old as time. Barbie and the Beast."

Katherine snickered. "Yeah. Adorable. I always suspected little Caroline might have a dark side she wasn't fully exploring. Any girl who Swiffers that much is working out some serious sexual frustration." She leaned forward, turning the vents of the air conditioning more fully on her face with her free hand. "You know, it is poetic in a way, the two of them fucking."

"Ah, yes, poetic fucking. You really do have a way with a phrase." Damon's brow furrowed. "How so?"

"Well, I mean, when I first came to Mystic Falls and found Elena's best friend wasting away in the hospital with your blood in her veins, I put her out of her human misery with a pillow over her face so she could be the vampire sacrifice to break Klaus' hybrid curse. Thought it might finally get him off my back if I gave him what he needed. Plus, I don't know…she was so pretty and cute and helpless…I thought Klaus might like her." Katherine grinned. "I guess I was right. It's almost like, in a way…they were literally made for each other."

"Aww. Your take on romance is so incredibly fucking weird and gross. You should really hook up all your supernatural friends, Kat," Damon rolled his eyes, "if you had any friends."

"If you think about it, it's almost like we're Caroline's screwed-up supernatural parents," Katherine grinned. "I mean, your blood turned her—"

"Right, and you smothered the life out of her—"

"Exactly." Katherine laughed, her strange, throaty laugh, and it was disorienting hearing it come out of Elena's mouth as she continued her sardonic speech. "You know, Damon, once we're in New Orleans, we should really sit our little Caroline down and talk to her about this dangerous new man in her life. Give her a stern talking to about making wise choices. Not giving her heart away too easily. She's still just a little baby vampire, trying to find her way in the world—we have to give her some guidance."

"She's not _our_ little Caroline. That's not…that's now how any of that works, Mistress of Darkness. You're just mentally ill and baby-crazy."

"And fucking hungry. Are you trying to starve me to death and royally piss Klaus off before we even get to New Orleans?" Katherine growled.

Damon sighed. "Big Bad Daddy Klaus doesn't scare me as much as he seems to scare everyone else. But unfortunately, dessication is not one of the methods to undo the Traveller spell. There's blood bags in the trunk. You can have a little snack at the next rest stop."

"Fine." Katherine looked out the window for a moment. "And if Klaus doesn't scare you, you're an idiot. Believe me, after being on his bad side for half a century, you don't want him as your enemy. If he wants you to suffer, you will. Once Klaus decides he wants something, he is _relentless_." She raised an eyebrow. "I've always thought that dogged determination of his must make him a hell of a fuck, actually. Seems like he could go forever. Maybe we'll have to ask Caroline. Or see if she's walking with a limp after her Big Easy Fuckfest." Katherine snorted with laughter again.

"Wait." Damon blinked with surprise. "You and Klaus never…?"

"No. I mean, when I first met him in England, I was definitely…intrigued by him. He was attractive, rich, and he and his family took me in when I had nothing. Before I had the sense to get to know Elijah, I always thought Klaus and I would end up sleeping together. His family would throw lavish parties and Klaus would spend just enough time dancing and talking with me to make me think he was interested, but it always seemed…almost perfunctory, in a way. He usually seemed happier when he could get away from me and spend time with his sister, to be honest."

Damon raised his eyebrows, but Katherine gave him a look. "Not like that, pervert. I mean, the Mikaelsons are one messed up family, but I've known them for a long time, and so has Stefan. Rebekah and Klaus have never gone full Lannister. Sorry if that was some twisted fantasy I just ruined for you."

"Gross. No." Damon wrinkled his nose. "No Mikaelson golden twins in my wank bank. But come on—you wondered about them too when you first met them. They're very…touchy."

"They are. And you and I have deviant minds, Damon. Of course we both wondered." She smirked. "But no, there was nothing like that between them. Klaus was too obsessed with breaking his hybrid curse to be thinking about me or any other girl, I suppose, so nothing ever happened with us. And then I betrayed him."

"I'll say. That was epic, Katherine. Even for you. Screwing over an Original? Not bad, evil one."

Katherine looked over her shoulder at him with a little smile. "Well, golly gee, thanks, Damon. Looking back on it now, getting one over on Klaus that early on was actually very stressful. Gave me quite the reputation to uphold."

"You poor little lamb," Damon said with mock sympathy.

"I managed somehow." Katherine stretched out her (Elena's, Damon thought) long mostly bare legs with her feet resting on the dashboard, wearing the white flip-flops Damon had shoved back on her feet before they'd left Elena's apartment, Katherine having painted her toenails black at some point after she'd taken over Elena's body. Damon forced himself to look away. He loved Elena's legs, and if it really was his girlfriend and not the devil incarnate beside him, he would reach over and rest his hand on her leg right below the hem of her cuffed denim shorts, and maybe Elena would look over and smile at him, like she'd done that one cloudy Sunday afternoon at the end of a too-short weekend when he'd been driving her back to Whitmore on that lonely road out of Mystic Falls, and he'd put his hand on her leg and Elena had smiled at him, and said, "Pull over."

He'd nearly done a complete U-turn in his hurry to do what she'd said, squealing the tires he'd pulled off the road so fast, parking the car behind some trees, and she'd laughed and climbed on top of him with a grin, saying, "I'm just not ready for this weekend to be over yet. Is that okay?" "Y-Yeah, of course," Damon had said, and she kissed him, taking off her t-shirt as they embraced, Damon unclasping her bra before she shrugged out of it and started to undo his jeans, Damon taking her face in his hands and kissing her this time, his fingers threading into her long brown hair, silky and so impossibly soft, Elena starting to instinctively move her body against his as they kissed, taking off his shirt, pulling his mouth back to hers, her lips brushing his as his hands moved down to her bare breasts, Elena sighing, "I love you, Damon, I love you so much…"

Damon cleared his throat, forcing himself out of the memory of the kind of hot, sweaty, forget-the-world sex that had made he and Elena briefly consider a life of becoming weird nomadic love-drunk hippies who just lived out of his car and traveled the country, Damon rubbing the back of his hand across his top lip, annoyed to find that he was sweating. Maybe it _was _too hot in this damn car. He cranked up the air conditioner.

What the hell was Katherine even talking about before she'd gone and shoved Elena's legs in his face? The Mikaelsons. Klaus. Right. Thank God. Talk about a boner killer. Damon wracked his brain for something to say to fill the silence, Katherine watching him with an annoyingly knowing smile.

"Y-You know, for a family that goes around sticking daggers in each other so much, you think the Mikaelsons could roll with the whole betrayal thing a little better," Damon finally forced his brain to work again.

"Yeah, no shit." Katherine was still looking at him with that fucking Cheshire cat expression. "Everything okay, Damon?"

"Yes. Stop being all smirky. It's very off-putting."

"Oh, please. This is hilarious." Katherine shifted around in her seat, Elena's tank top showing the top of her black bra. "You can barely contain your erection around me when I'm all Elena-fied. You are so sick. It's really too bad you didn't pack that little cheerleader outfit of hers. You could have boned me in it and gotten all the fun of Elena's nubile teenager body with all of the benefits of me actually having any idea what I'm doing during sex."

"If you don't shut up, I'm locking you in the trunk."

"Right, because you're such a saint now? You're not even a little tempted to take me for a spin like this?" Katherine rolled her eyes. "I don't buy that for a second. You may never get another chance to be with Elena again. What if this whole Klaus-plan of yours doesn't work? What if you're severely underestimating me and Nadia? She finds a way to burn my body, I get Elena's body for good, Klaus gets the blood he wants and forgets all about your problems, and then I'm gone, kid." She looked over at him. "Where would that leave you?"

"Not going to happen." Damon stared determinedly at the road. "I trust my brother to take care of things in Mystic Falls. And if Klaus has half a brain, which I think he must if he's managed to stay alive this long, he'll figure out that getting Elena back will make Caroline happy. And evil megalomaniac or not, I think that weirdly enough he does actually love Caroline and wants to make her happy. He may kind of suck at it, but from everything I've seen, he loves her, in his weird Klaus way. I just have to make him see that the only way to keep Caroline is to get rid of you."

"Klaus keeping Caroline happy may not be as simple as just getting rid of me," Katherine smiled mysteriously.

"What are you talking about now?" Damon sighed.

"Did you ever meet a werewolf named Hayley Marshall?"

Damon thought for a moment. "Uhh…sort of. Had a thing with Caroline's boyfriend back in the day. Sexy boho chick. I vaguely recall. What about her?"

Katherine's smile widened. "She moved to New Orleans recently too, did you know? In the family way, poor girl."

"Where are you going with this, Katherine? You think Tyler knocked up a werewolf and now it's going to make Caroline's life come crashing down or something? Because you might want to check your facts. He's a hybrid. Half-bloodsucker. No babies coming from those roided-up balls of rage. Not possible."

"I didn't say anything about Tyler. And I wouldn't, because he bores me to death. But Hayley's child does have a hybrid father. A very famous one, in fact. The original hybrid."

Damon swerved the wheel slightly, turning to look at her so sharply. "Shut the fuck up. Klaus?"

"They're calling it a miracle child, and it's hard to disagree. Klaus was born a werewolf, you see, so apparently…nature found a way. And from what you've told me…it sounds like Caroline has no idea. Poor girl. No idea that she's the other woman, and that her sexual awakening has some very tangled strings attached. Klaus is being a bit greedy if you ask me—Hayley, Caroline, and a little one on the way. Quite a tangled web he's weaving…"

Damon fell silent, looking back at the road. He had gotten where he could usually tell when Katherine was lying, and it didn't sound like she was lying now. He couldn't believe it, couldn't even fully explain it, but for a moment, he almost felt sorry for Klaus.

Caroline stepped into the dimly lit bathroom of The Court of Two Sisters, the restaurant Klaus had arranged to have vacated of other patrons for their use later that night, Klaus compelling the wait staff to serve them and then forget they were ever there, the couple using the back entrance after Klaus posted guards from his vampire army discreetly at every door to keep watch for any suspicious activity while they dined.

She was impressed with all the trouble Klaus had gone through just to take her out, and she felt a million times better than she had this morning, like she could breathe again just being out and about, just leaving the house for a little bit, wanting to have a good time and forget all the troubling flashbacks from earlier to stuff with her dad that she'd buried so deep down inside her that she'd never, ever thought she'd ever have to think about it again. She'd had no idea all of that was still so fresh and painful, thinking she'd long gotten over the loss of her dad and his attempts to change her. Apparently not. She had thought it was so weird for Klaus to live in a big house with his family issues so out in the open that they were literally decorating the walls, but maybe that was better than what she had been doing—pretending hers didn't exist. She didn't know which was more healthy. Maybe they were both crazy.

Caroline had changed into the one nice outfit she'd brought for dinner, a black long-sleeved maxi-dress that covered most everything but was skintight and had a slit over her right leg, so she hoped it looked sexy enough to qualify as a date outfit. She was grateful she'd packed one pair of simple black strappy heels—they weren't anything fancy, but they would work.

Caroline wore her birthday necklace as well, deciding that it really did improve every outfit, curling her hair and wearing it down around her shoulders, her hair finally cooperating and falling into nice pretty 40s style waves, and rimmed her blue eyes with black eye-liner and put on gray smoky eyeshadow. She wanted to look presentable for once—so far Klaus had seen her look like a drowned rat when she'd arrived, passed out and covered in blood on his kitchen floor, and then swollen and puffy after crying for three hours this morning. She needed to step up her game a little.

Klaus was the most fun person to get dressed up for ever—he'd been waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at her with completely genuine wonder. He'd told her how beautiful she looked, kissing her hand like they were in an old movie, and looking hot as hell himself in a black suit, a more formal version of the one he'd worn during the day. She was so used to seeing him in his usual v-neck t-shirt and jeans that Klaus in a suit was still taking some getting used to—it was a very good look for him. Everything was a good look for him. But then wearing nothing was a good look for him too, Caroline thought, remembering the feather turning into birds tattoo on his shoulder, the way his shoulder muscle flexed beneath her hand when he'd thrust into her during sex. Oh, boy. Caroline suddenly felt slightly feverish. This long-sleeved dress might have been a bad idea in the New Orleans heat.

They'd arrived to the restaurant and started dinner with more of that amazing blood wine he'd given her this morning (Caroline wondered if he had stores of it all over town—he really did have this whole place wired), but she had excused herself to the bathroom for a moment, worried that her skin might have gone from what she had been going for— pretty and dewy— to shiny and (ugh) sweaty on the ride over since she was practically dying of heat exhaustion in this damn dress, wanting to use the little blotting papers she kept in her purse on her nose or cheeks. She stepped into the bathroom, starting to dig through her purse, looking up at her reflection in the mirror and nearly jumping out of her skin.

Rebekah Mikaelson stepped out from behind the bathroom door, her blue eyes dark and angry, managing to look terrifyingly strong and powerful even in a short gold strapless dress that was practically painted on her body, Rebekah towering over Caroline in her trademark sky high heels as she whooshed forward to stand right at Caroline's shoulder.

"Rebekah." Caroline dropped her purse to the floor, trying to will her mind to work and register something other than shock.

"Hello there, Caroline. Been awhile." Rebekah kicked the bathroom door closed, locking it and then shoving Caroline forward, slamming Caroline's cheek against the mirror in one smooth motion, the glass cracking against Caroline's cheekbone. "So glad you and I found a moment for a little chat, just us girls."

"Klaus is here. He's right outside. He'll notice if I—"

"Right, right. You two are on your little date." Rebekah looked Caroline up and down, still gripping the back of her neck. "Although you wouldn't know it from your outfit. You look like you're on your way to a bloody convent."

Caroline looked at Rebekah's dress just as disparagingly in the fractured reflection. They had never really seen eye to eye on fashion. "Well, maybe next time, I'll go with you to Sears and we can pick out another gold lame tube dress from the Kardashian Kollection so I can be cool like you."

Rebekah's grip tightened on Caroline's neck. "This is Gucci, you dumb bitch. Show some respect in the presence of greatness."

"You look like a sparkly condom."

"Well, you look like a sister wife."

"Are you here for some reason?" Caroline struggled for breath. "Or did you just feel like choking me out? Because I'm really not into that."

Rebekah lazily tossed Caroline aside into the opposite tiled wall, going to block the bathroom door as Caroline struggled back up to her feet, grimacing slightly in pain as Rebekah crossed her arms over her chest. "I have a message for you to give Nik. From his baby sister."

"Stop talking about yourself in the third person. It's really weird." Caroline rolled her eyes, rubbing the swiftly growing lump on the back of her head.

"Tell him that Elijah and I want to meet," Rebekah continued. "Just us. Just the family. I want us to try to make peace before the whole city's destroyed for the sake of our…unfortunate disagreement. But this will be his final chance for armistice. Three a.m., tomorrow night. He'll know where. If he doesn't show, fine. We'll take that as his statement of intent— an official declaration of war. If he brings anyone else—you, or any of his little vampire cronies—war. I've already spoken with Elijah, and he's agreed to the meeting and these terms, for Hayley's sake."

"Hayley?" Caroline's eyebrows went together. "Hayley Marshall?"

"Yes, darling, The werewolf." Rebekah was speaking slowly and looking at her as if she was being very stupid about something.

"What does she have to do with any of this?" Caroline asked.

"Quite a lot, I'd say." Rebekah let out a disbelieving laugh. "Good God. He hasn't really…he can't have thought you'd never…oh, Nik. The great, sodding, bloody fool. He finally has you, and he goes and does this." Rebekah shook her head.

"What are you talking about?"

"You and my brother clearly still have much to discuss," Rebekah's mouth curved into a maddening smile. "Inform him of my offer. And do make sure he understands this is his last chance for peace. It expires at 3:01 tomorrow night. If he disregards this, or doesn't take it seriously, help him to understand—Elijah and I may very well negotiate a treaty between our factions without him. And if that was to happen—our combined forces and the power of the child…he wouldn't stand a chance against us. Not him, or his followers…" she looked at Caroline significantly, "…or anyone else foolish enough to fight on his losing side. You're free to join us anytime you like, you know."

"Just stop. I'm not leaving him." Caroline shook her head. "Betrayal isn't a game to me, Rebekah. I don't play it like a sport like you do. When I choose a side, I stay on it. Until the end."

"The noble Caroline. Let me know how that works out for you." Rebekah gave her a little wink. "Being so bloody good all the time." She stepped forward. "You'll tell my brother what I said?"

Caroline just nodded, and with a sudden sound of rushing air, Rebekah was gone.

A/N- Until chapter four!


	4. A Boiling in the Blood

A/N- Thank you all so much for your support of this story—I absolutely love writing it, and hearing all your thoughts and theories! Believe me, this rollercoaster is just going to get crazier from here on out…thanks for coming along for the ride! I have all sorts of fun things planned for all of you readers in the future as well—stay tuned!

Fight and Not Be Slain

Chapter Four

"Elijah, please...let me help you. You don't have to do everything by yourself," Hayley said softly from where she had been attempting to fall asleep on pillows propped against their antique headboard, unable to get comfortable, her hands resting instinctively on her massively swollen stomach. She watched Elijah crouched by the fireplace, gritting his teeth as he peeled off the makeshift bandages from his forearm, attempting to clean and redress them before he went to bed.

"I'm fine. Go ahead and get some rest," Elijah said, grimacing slightly with pain when one of the bandages took freshly formed skin with it and opened up closed over wounds, Elijah hastily pouring the water he'd heated over the fire to sanitize the cuts left from the deep claw marks on the top of his left forearm.

Blood immediately pooled in the irritated wounds, Elijah applying pressure and trying to staunch it with the filthy towel they had in their abandoned farmhouse in the woods where he and Hayley had been living among the werewolves. Hayley sighed, throwing off the quilt, climbing rather laboriously to her feet and walking over to him at the fireplace.

"Come to bed," Hayley insisted, holding out her hand to him. "I'm not kneeling down there with you, because it would take me an embarrassingly long time to get up again like this, so maybe I can't make as convincing of an argument, but please…come to bed, and I can bandage things up for you."

Elijah looked up at her for a moment, sighing, throwing some water from the pitcher on the fire to put it out, and taking her hand, holding the towel against his wounds with the other hand as he got to his feet and followed Hayley across the room to the bed. All their windows were open, and they were wearing as little clothes as possible, but they were still both soaked in sweat, the fabric of their clothes clinging to their skin, the bayou still miserably hot even in the middle of the night. Hayley was wearing just a blousy white nightgown, Elijah a white wifebeater and a pair of gray sweatpants. They'd gotten a closetful of clothes (that Elijah had a funny feeling had been taken from the clan's previous victims judging by the range in sizes and the occasional rips and tears) and use of this farmhouse from the werewolf clan as a sign of respect to Hayley and her child.

The werewolves had threatened an uprising when Hayley first wanted to take Elijah as her "betrothed" in the farmhouse ("They're a little old school," she'd explained to him, "but I thought you might get that"), saying that she should be with a werewolf not a daywalker, with one of her own, and Elijah, clearly tired of people saying he and Hayley shouldn't be together, had challenged the clan's alpha male to a fight for control of the pack.

Elijah had defeated their alpha male, and the clan had begrudgingly accepted him as Hayley's mate and their leader, but according to their rules, anyone else in the pack could challenge his claim at any time. And many had, sometimes multiple challengers at once. Elijah had been battling to keep his title as alpha constantly, and Original strength or not, it was beginning to take a toll on him physically and mentally. And there was also the knowledge that if he ever let his guard down for a moment and was bitten in a fight, he'd be severely weakened and unable to defend Hayley or the child from werewolves, witches, Marcel, his siblings—whatever next threat walked through their door. And on top of all of that, Hayley knew Elijah was already badly hurt and fatigued from what had happened with his siblings, both in his body and mind. She wanted to help him, wanted to make everything better, but she didn't know what to do other than stand beside him.

And she felt terrible complaining when he was risking his life every day just to be with her, but her pregnancy was rapidly becoming unbearable, her whole body aching, her ribs feeling like they were being stretched steadily apart from the inside by little hands aching to escape, exhaustion beginning to overwhelm her like a sickness despite the fact that she could hardly ever get comfortable enough to sleep for more than a half hour or so. She could sense her daughter's discomfort and unhappiness too in this last month of pregnancy, the little girl wanting to be born, wanting to get out of the darkness and into the light, and Hayley wanted to help her, wanted to hold her so badly, already wanted her happiness in all things, feeling as though their emotions had already become inextricably intertwined.

She arranged the pillows to prop up Elijah's head, helping him lie back before sitting down on the bed beside him.

"Comfortable?" she asked him gently, Elijah nodding, Hayley taking the rolls of fabric they'd been using as bandages from the bedside table. "Just try to relax, okay?

Elijah finally reluctantly obeyed, closing his eyes. Hayley cleaned and bound his wounds, looking down at him, brushing Elijah's damp hair back off his forehead afterwards. "Elijah?"

"Yes?" he breathed out, his eyes still closed.

"I know what you're risking staying here with me. And I…I just…I would understand if it was too much…"

Elijah reached up with his uninjured hand, holding her wrist, his eyes exhausted but half-open as they met Hayley's. "I told you I'd always protect you." He stroked the inside of her wrist with his thumb. "And that when I find love, I honor it."

Hayley pressed her lips together hard for a moment, her eyes burning with tears as she smiled. "I can't even believe you exist sometimes." She took his face in her hands, leaning down to kiss him. When they broke apart, Hayley lay down beside him against the pillows, Elijah turning slightly so they were facing each other, Hayley just looking at him, her hazel eyes dark and serious. "I really wish you wouldn't go tomorrow. You and I both know your family doesn't want to make peace. They're just trying to lure you out of hiding. Make you more vulnerable to attack."

Elijah sighed heavily, smoothing a dark tendril of Hayley's hair back that had been sticking to her sweaty temple. "You may very well be right. But when my sister and I spoke, she seemed truly motivated by a desire to avoid further bloodshed. I share the same hope that all of this…madness could be solved without further innocent lives being lost. And I can't help but feel as though I am the one largely responsible for starting the principle conflict. So I feel as though I should at least hear her out."

"You didn't do anything wrong." Hayley stroked the dark shadow of stubble on Elijah's strong jawline. She had never seen him anything but perfectly clean-shaven before, but his immaculate appearance was one of the many things he'd sacrificed for the sake of living in the woods among the werewolves. She didn't understand his decision to stay. She was so weak and sick and so incredibly pregnant that the baby could come any day now, so it wasn't as though Elijah was putting up with these miserable living conditions because he was getting laid on the regular—she wanted him, of course she did, so badly she could feel her desire for him in her bones like a deep physical ache, but there was just no way they could even attempt anything sexual with the state they were both in right now, and Elijah felt so guilty about everything already with betraying his family (in his eyes) that Hayley knew anything past PG-13 territory was completely off the table—and probably would be until they got as far away from his brother and sister as possible.

So it wasn't the awesome sex keeping him around. And she wasn't exactly scintillating company either—Hayley was so tired and brain-dead from this baby that she had become embarrassingly prone to losing her train of thought mid-sentence and even nodding off during one or two conversations.

But still, he stayed with her, and fought for her, and Hayley was grateful beyond what she thought she could ever truly express to him. The thought of him being gone, even for a moment, made her nervous and upset and Elijah going to "talk" to Rebekah and Klaus in the city just sounded like a set-up waiting to happen, and she hated it.

"So okay, fine, maybe Rebekah really does want to make things right. What about Klaus?" Hayley spat his brother's name like it was a dirty word, disgusted by the display he'd put on in the Quarter. "If he's had his ear to the ground at all, he'll know what's happened out here with us. He'd love the opportunity to defeat the alpha of the werewolves, and he's bitten you before for no reason at all. If he comes to this so-called 'peace' meeting, it will be for one reason only—to send you back here with a werewolf bite, weakened and defeated, as a message to me, so the clan can tear you to pieces, and he can come here, defeat their new alpha, and take me away from my people." Hayley shook her head, tears slipping down her cheeks. "Don't do it. All you and Rebekah ever do is give him second chances. Please. I'm asking you not to go."

"Hayley. Millions will die if this comes to war. Many who had no part in any of this. If that could be avoided and their lives could be saved by me swallowing my pride and admitting my culpability in what happened in the Quarter to my brother and sister, then I'll do it."

"You know, this is one the one downside of falling for the good brother," Hayley observed. "The whole 'you-doing-the-right-thing' part."

"I have to at least try," Elijah said quietly.

"I know you do." Hayley smiled wearily.

"Besides my brother didn't start the conflict that night. I did." Elijah's brow furrowed. "It's always easier to blame Rebekah and Klaus, because they fight and rage, but perhaps they're better off doing things their way. They put everything out in the open. I thought I was taking care of them all these years by staying silent, but I was just growing angrier and angrier surreptitiously and, in the end, I'm the one…I'm the one who ripped us apart." His voice caught slightly in his throat.

"Elijah, no," Hayley moved closer to him in bed, wishing her enormous stomach didn't prevent her from holding him closer, her hand still on his cheek. "You were strong for them. For all of us. And everything you said that night was true. You had to be honest with him. We both did. I think it was long overdue."

He nodded, but he rolled onto his back miserably away from her touch, staring up at the ceiling. "I think…I'm going to check around the house before we go to sleep. Make sure everything's safe for the night."

Hayley knew he was just making up an excuse to be alone, but she didn't call him out on needing to be by himself. "Okay." She did gently place her hand on his arm, looking over at him, needing him to hear something before he went. "But please…you can't keep punishing yourself like this. I know this makes you crazy to hear, but some things you can't control. Stop apologizing for having feelings. It doesn't make you a bad person to choose something for yourself and not for them. If telling the truth ripped your family apart, then it was already fucked up to begin with. Don't apologize for being the one who had the balls to say how fucked up it was. And if you do go meet with them, don't you dare apologize for being here with me. You don't owe your brother anything. You don't, and I don't. And I'm not going to apologize for things that were out of my control either. I'm not going to apologize to anyone for falling in love with you."

Elijah turned to look at her, usually so together and composed but suddenly looking like a little boy who'd just received the shock of his life. "What did you say?"

Hayley swallowed hard. She hadn't done this in a long time, and she'd been wrong about guys before. Really, really wrong. But she'd never felt sure like this, and for the first time, it didn't scare her that what she was going to say next made a connection that couldn't ever be broken between two people in her mind. She knew what people thought about her. They assumed that the hippie bohemian werewolf chick who'd gotten knocked up from a one-night stand with Klaus was just a dumb slut who was basically just good for incubating the baby who was going to change the entire world—nobody really cared what Hayley wanted, or thought, or felt about any of this. Nobody but Elijah.

Elijah had always looked at her like she was this beautiful, wonderful person, and even though Hayley knew in her own mind that was far from the truth, the fact that someone saw any good in her at all had made start to look at herself completely differently—like she might actually be worth something more than the sad little orphan who slept around to try and find somebody to love her, but always ended up alone because she had always been attracted to assholes like Klaus in the past, who never called her again.

The idea of love and babies and family and a home had always been something she'd wanted, even though she usually kept that dream to herself, and the whole family aspect of the werewolf pack had been the main thing that had appealed to her when she had first been triggered. She had never hated her heritage, or been ashamed of what she was. Her pack was the closest thing she'd ever found to a family, until this pregnancy had come out of nowhere—along with Elijah, and the feelings for him that had hit her like a freight train.

He had been there for her through everything, and loved her when she felt her most unlovable. It didn't make sense, it had nearly gotten them both killed multiple times, it was going to make life so complicated she didn't even know where to begin—but even still—

"I love you, Elijah." She finally just said it.

He looked at her for a long moment, his expression difficult to read, but his dark eyes glassy with tears. He reached over, his hand on her cheek as he kissed her forehead, his lips pressed against her feverishly hot skin for a long time. "And my love for you only increases. Far more than you could know, or I could ever control." He pulled away from her then, getting to his feet and walking outside, clearly needing to be alone with his thoughts.

Hayley rolled over back against the pillows of the bed, looking up at the ceiling, letting out a long sigh of frustration. "Baby," she put her hands on her stomach, talking to her daughter as she had started doing more and more often, "I really am sorry about this whole living in constant peril with no air conditioning thing. Hopefully this will all be over soon, and the three of us can get the hell out of here. And Elijah and I will keep you safe and we'll always love you, okay?" Hayley rubbed her stomach with a small smile. "And then maybe one day, after you're born, mama can finally have some sex so she doesn't wolf out and start crawling the walls with insanity."

Her stomach stirred slightly against her hand, and Hayley laughed. "You better be agreeing with me and not protesting. This has been a rough road, little lady." She tried to arrange the pillows behind her head to get comfortable. It was mostly a lost cause, but she did her best, finally shoving a pillow under her lower back and feeling a little better. "Try and get some sleep, baby. He'll be back soon. He's just brooding outside," Hayley mumbled drowsily, her hand still on her stomach as she closed her eyes, and finally nodded off, slipping in and out of a light, restless sleep.

Elijah stood on the porch, his arms crossed over his chest, looking out at the bayou. He could see that Hayley was finally able to get some rest inside, and he didn't want to disturb her. Besides, he felt too anxious to even make another futile attempt at sleeping through the night. He knew he should just be happy that she'd told him she loved him, and while a part of him— the part he was still trying to actively repress, even here— was happy and wanted her more than ever, another part of him just felt even guiltier than he already did about what they were doing, running away together like this.

His mind kept returning to the night that all of this had started, the Jazz Festival where the truth had come out and he had lost control of himself entirely and finally stripped bare all of the things his family had been hiding away and pretending didn't exist. Elijah didn't know what had come over him, and he so rarely lost control of himself that he felt like he needed to examine the memory so the same fury wouldn't overtake him again when he met with his siblings tomorrow night.

He leaned back against the doorframe of his and Hayley's cabin, listening to the sounds of the cicadas and frogs chirping nearby. The heat and humidity were so oppressive and thick this close to the swamplands that it felt as though they were living underwater, all of their movements sluggish and labored. It was hard to even force his brain into action, but he made himself think back to that day, to every detail. He would make himself remember, even as a sort of self-flagellation—he had ruined everything. So he needed to understand what had happened…so that even more importantly, he could fix things with his family now.

_ "So are you coming out with us tonight?" _

_ Elijah looked up at the sound of Hayley's voice, folding the newspaper closed from where he'd been reading it at the kitchen island. "I'm not convinced attending this festival is the best idea. For any of us. It's the full moon tonight. There are rumors of the witches completing their Harvest. No one has heard from Marcel in days, but it stands to reason that he would be…dangerously unstable at best, after what happened to Davina. The city is at the brink of a boiling point, and my brother has a way of sending things over the edge." _

_ Hayley sighed heavily, leaning back against the counter beside him. "Elijah. There will always be reasons not to do something. But you can't just let those run your life forever." She put a hand to her rounded stomach. "She'll be here in a month, and then who knows? I may not even be able to get out of bed for awhile. I want to go do something fun for once, while I still can. And I want you to come with us." _

_ Elijah's mouth curved into a small smile. "Why? I'm not fun. Just ask my siblings. Why would you want me to come?"_

_ "Because if you're not there, I'll just be thinking about you all night," Hayley said boldly, the look in her hazel eyes almost a challenge as they met his and didn't waver or look away._

_ "Hayley…" Elijah breathed out, their shoulders brushing as he looked down at his hands braced on the countertop._

_ She covered one of his hands with hers. "Just tell me something. When is the last time you did something just because you wanted to do it?"_

_ "No decision is ever that simple. Consequences must be considered before actions—"_

_ "I don't care! I don't care about consequences! I care about right now! But clearly we're never going to agree, so just forget it, okay?" Hayley let out an exasperated sigh. "Just fucking forget I said anything. You know what? While you're at it, stop being so nice to me. Stop looking at me like you want me because it's fucking torture and I can't take it anymore. Stop pretending like this is going somewhere when clearly you've already decided it never can. In fact, why don't you just make everything easier for everyone and just stay away from me because I can't do this halfway shit anymore." She went to pull away from him, but Elijah caught her by the arm. "Neither can I," he said, and Hayley's eyes flicked up to his skeptically. They'd done this dance before, and he'd lost his nerve. _

_But suddenly, Elijah pulled Hayley's body into his against the kitchen counter, finally claiming her lips with his hard, Hayley reaching up to him hungrily as she kissed him back, her other hand sliding into his dark hair as the kiss deepened, Elijah's grip tightening on her arm still braced against the counter at the sound of a low groan from Hayley's throat as his tongue massaged hers, her oversized sweater falling off her shoulders as she unknotted his tie and threw it aside, starting to unbutton his shirt—_

"_So I have officially decided we need to start Vodka Tuesdays around here—who's with me?" Rebekah came in through the kitchen door, her arms full of grocery bags, looking up at the state of Hayley and Elijah and stopping with shock in the doorway. "Bloody hell, you two. What if I had been Klaus?"_

_Neither of them seemed to have any response to that, Hayley pulling her sweater back up over her black v-neck t-shirt, crossing her arms over her chest, looking at Rebekah with an expression on her face like she was a defiant teenager caught making out with her boyfriend by her mom, Elijah looking more flustered than Rebekah had ever seen him as he fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, his usually perfect hair sticking up in odd directions before he hastily smoothed it back down, bending down and retrieving his tie, shoving it in the pocket of his jacket._

_As if on cue, Klaus walked in the open kitchen door then, looking downright chipper, not seeming to notice the awkwardness in the room. "Hello, hello, family of mine! Tickets for the jazz festival tonight have been successfully procured by yours truly—oh, and Elijah—" he pointed suddenly and accusatorily at his older brother, and everyone froze for a moment, "you're coming with us, and I don't want to hear another word about it. I've gotten you a ticket, and that's that. You're going, you're having fun, and that's the end of it."_

"_That's fine," Elijah responded after a moment, his voice slightly stilted._

_Klaus looked around the room, Rebekah still clutching her groceries, Hayley staring determinedly at the floor, and Elijah looking almost pained. Klaus' brow furrowed with confusion. "All right, I'm getting the distinct feeling I've missed a step somewhere. What's happened?"_

_ Rebekah recovered the quickest, a bright smile on her face. "Nothing, brother." She set her groceries on the floor. "You'll help me get the rest out of the car, won't you?" _

_ "I suppose." Klaus still looked slightly bothered by the strange energy in his home, but followed Rebekah outside, and Hayley and Elijah could hear him talking to her as they walked out to the car—"I think she might finally be coming here tonight. She asked for our address, and said that she wanted to talk to me face-to-face." _

_ "Worn her down at last, have you?" Rebekah laughed. _

_ "Shut it, you."_

_ "Still staying mum about what happened in the woods with you two, Nik? Must have really been something if Caroline's willing to travel such a long way to see you again. What in the world did you do to that poor girl?"_

_ "Beks, I will hurt you." Klaus was laughing now too, but he sounded happier than any of them had ever heard him. _

_ Hayley and Elijah were still standing in the kitchen in silence, both of them unsure what to do or say to each other now._

_ "I suppose…I should…" Elijah motioned awkwardly to the bags of groceries._

_ "Right." Hayley went to help him._

_ "Oh, I certainly don't expect you to—"_

_ "Elijah, I'm pregnant, not dying." She rolled her eyes, picking up the bag of three vodka bottles Rebekah had purchased and carrying them into the walk-in pantry._

_ Elijah followed her into the pantry with the bag containing the cereal and crackers Hayley liked, that Rebekah had actually been very sweet to remember, Elijah and Hayley unpacking groceries onto the shelves in silence for a moment before Elijah turned to her, speaking in a hushed whisper. "Do we need to talk about what we…before…?"_

_ "Probably." Hayley shrugged as she turned to face him, speaking in a whisper as well, looking up at Elijah. "So talk."_

_ He looked fleetingly over his shoulder, but Rebekah and Klaus were still outside, laughing about something. "Here?"_

_ "Where do you want to go? Your bedroom? Please. We both know you'll never touch me now that His Royal Highness has returned." Hayley rolled her eyes. "Klaus runs this place. Fun's over."_

_ "My brother does not dictate my—"_

_ "Elijah. Your brother controls every aspect of your life. You and Rebekah's. It's insane the amount of power he has over both of you. He makes every decision in this place. What, do you need a signed permission form from Klaus that says you can fuck me? Decide something for yourself for once! Don't let him do this to you forever!" Hayley looked up at him for a long moment. "Tell me that I'm wrong. Tell me that you can do something without him allowing it first," she put her hand on his chest, her eyes pleading with him. But Elijah didn't say anything, and Hayley breathed out, shaking her head in disbelief. "Wow. Okay. That's what I needed to know." _

_ She pushed past him hard, walking out of the pantry and nearly running into Rebekah and Klaus coming back inside. Elijah turned to look at them all, seeing Klaus laugh out loud, Klaus taking Hayley by the chin teasingly and looking at her with narrowed eyes that were still sparkling from his present good mood. "You've got a mood on, love—what's this face about, then?"_

_ "Fuck off, Klaus," Hayley muttered, shoving him off of her and grabbing a bag of chocolate candy from the groceries. She left the kitchen, stomping upstairs._

_ Klaus looked at his brother and sister, confused. "What's gotten into her?"_

_ "Pregnancy hormones, probably." Rebekah shrugged, shooting Elijah a look over Klaus' shoulder that said "saved-your-ass." _

_ "Lord. Let's hope that kid comes soon then. I swear she gets scarier everyday." Klaus shuddered slightly. _

_ "Where the bloody hell's my vodka?" Rebekah rifled through the grocery bags, Elijah silently handing her one of her bottles from the pantry, Rebekah twisting off the top and mixing up a blood-and-vodka cocktail. "You boys better believe I'm pre-gaming this jazz festival—they only ever have beer at these ruddy things, and I want to get properly sloshed. I love listening to jazz drunk."_

_ "You love doing any and everything drunk, sister. Remind me. Have we ever sent you to a rehabilitation program in any of your lifetimes?" Klaus laughed._

_ "No, and you can go fuck yourself," Rebekah rolled her eyes, motioning to Klaus with her martini glass, "We live eternally, Nik—and while sometimes it's rather fun to be an all-powerful immortal being, it's also a literal life sentence of people somehow managing to disappoint you in paradoxically both the exact same and new and exciting ways over and over—you've got to dull the edges of that fucked-up realization somehow." She took a sip of her martini. "What do you say, boys? Tonight we forget all our cares, forget the kingdom, and just have a decent time for once?"_

_ Klaus seized the vodka bottle from her, taking a liberal swallow. "Fuck, yeah." He turned to Elijah, holding out the bottle. "Come on then, big brother. I don't know what's wrong with you lately and God knows you'll never tell us, but if you don't get out of this funk you're in, all they're ever going to say about you is, oh yes, that Elijah, he wore many, many well-pressed suits and often looked very morose. Live it up a bit. For once? Come on…just a little smile…for your little brother…"_

_ Elijah smiled tightly, more accurately baring his teeth, Klaus giving Rebekah a small shrug. "It's not perfect, but it'll do! You know what, Beks, I could do a shot or six with you. Pour it on up, then."_

_ "That's more like it," Rebekah giggled, getting down the shot glasses, Elijah walking out of the kitchen and up to his room, seeing that the door to Hayley's bedroom was pointedly closed._

"_I must say, brother," Rebekah looped her arm through her Klaus', smiling brightly at him as they walked around the jazz festival with Elijah and Hayley trailing behind them, "one of your better ideas. I think we all just needed to get out of the house and just have some fun, for fuck's sake." She drank the rest of the pint of beer from the souvenir cup she was holding in her other hand, her cheeks red and flushed, already many, many refills in._

_ "I was going to go bloody mad if we stayed in that house a moment longer." Klaus nodded in agreement, finishing his pint as well, checking his phone for the hundredth time that night before he shoved it back in his jeans pocket, his eyes dark and disappointed for a moment before he seemed to shake it off or at least try to, his voice a little slurred, holding up his empty pint cup. "Where the fuck can we get these topped off?"_

_ "We're not even going to be able to see the stage if we go wait in line again for you two to get more drinks," Elijah sighed from behind them, sounding more than a little annoyed with Rebekah and Klaus. He'd knew he'd been in a rotten mood all night, but he couldn't help it. Hayley had barely said a word to him since what had happened in the kitchen, looking tired and grouchy herself._

_ Klaus turned to look at his older brother. "It's a jazz concert, not a strip club, Elijah. Old men play instruments. Hot girls don't get their kit off. Who cares if you can see the stage? And I want another drink."_

_ Elijah glared at him. "You're already drunk." _

_ Klaus shook his head with a laugh. "So much for living it up, Elijah! If this is you trying to have a good time, maybe we should have just dropped you off at the senior center on the way…this is clearly too much excitement for you, gramps—"_

_ Hayley rolled her eyes, stepping forward, one calming hand on Elijah's arm and the other on her pregnant stomach that was presently grumbling with hunger. "Guys. Anyway we can table this until after I get something to eat? The miracle child is seriously craving one of those turkey legs. Apparently she is one classy chick."_

_ Klaus gave his brother a small smirk before looking to Hayley. "Of course, love. I'll get my drink and you something to keep our girl happy. My treat."_

_ "Thanks, Klaus." Hayley gave Elijah a fleeting, apologetic look when Klaus put an arm around her shoulders, but then she looked away, seeming to remember that she was mad at him too. _

_ "Why don't you and Rebekah go and find us a spot near the stage? Hayley and I will meet you down there in a bit," Klaus said to his brother and sister, leading Hayley away, looking very pleased with himself when he saw that Elijah was practically boiling with rage. _

_ "Didn't even ask if I wanted another drink." Rebekah muttered, looking down at her empty cup when she and Elijah were left alone. "Typical." _

_ Elijah didn't say anything, still watching Klaus and Hayley walk away, his brother's arm still around her shoulders, pulling up Hayley's oversized purple sweater when it fell down one of her tanned arms, looking to anyone who saw them like a happy couple with a baby on the way, Elijah suddenly seeing red and having to fight down the urge to rip out the heart of the next person who bumped into him in overcrowded, oversold mass of people. _

_ "Are you going to be all right?" Rebekah asked Elijah quietly, her voice concerned. "Elijah?" _

_ He didn't seem to be listening to her, shaking his head in anger. _

_ "He's behaving like a drunken fool, and Hayley's indulging him. She has been all night." Elijah said through gritted teeth. "Playing happy family, after everything he's done to her. It makes me sick." _

_ "I think she really was just hungry, Elijah. And he's just being…you know, Klaus." Rebekah shrugged._

_ "But why do we always excuse even his most appalling behavior so flippantly? If either of us acted the way or said the things that he does on a daily basis, he would accuse of the most vile treachery and we would have to beg his forgiveness before we were allowed back into his life." Elijah shook his head. "And we do it, Rebekah, over and over. We allow him to do anything he likes, no matter who he hurts or what he destroys in his wake." Elijah's hands tightened into fists. "It's not amusing anymore. For the first time, I find myself...growing weary of his carelessness towards everyone around him. Towards Hayley. Towards you and me."_

_ "I know how you feel about Hayley," Rebekah reached out, her hand on her brother's arm, Elijah refusing to look at her. "But she's having his baby, Elijah. What did you think was going to happen? How did you see this ending well?"_

_ "He doesn't deserve to be that child's father!" Elijah suddenly rounded on her, angrier than Rebekah had ever heard him, his dark eyes practically black with rage as he gripped her arm tightly._

_ "But he is."_

_ Elijah looked into his sister's eyes for a long moment, breathing hard, seeming to be fighting down his rage, the instinct to give into his vampire impulses and just go blood mad on the crowd around them. He seemed to draw strength from Rebekah, letting out a long breath, some measure of calm and kindness returning to his brown eyes. "I-I'm sorry, sister. None of this is your fault. I just don't know how much longer I can stand…"_

_ "…pretending you're not completely in love with her?" Rebekah supplied helpfully._

_ "Well…yes." Elijah sighed wearily._

_ "Klaus just does this nonsense like tonight to mess with your head. And because he's a flirt, and Hayley is too, so sometimes she does it back. That's how I think this little miracle happened in the first place, actually." Rebekah rolled her eyes with a little laugh. "But it doesn't mean anything to either of them, Elijah, not really. I've seen the way she looks at you, and it's completely different than the way she looks at him. She wants to be with you—clearly. I got an eyeful of proof of that this afternoon, remember?" Rebekah grinned. "But it's more than that to her too. She loves you just as much as you love her. I know it."_

_ Elijah's breath caught in his throat, looking up at Rebekah, shaking his head as if she'd said something blasphemous. "Don't. Don't say that if you don't—"_

_ "I mean it." Rebekah rubbed her brother's arm with her hand, seeming to think for a moment before arriving at a conclusion. "And I don't know how in the bloody hell we're ever going to figure all of this out, but we've weathered plenty of storms before, the three of us. We'll find a way. We're a family. Always and forever."_

_ Elijah smiled at her. "The eternal optimist."_

_ Rebekah smiled back. "Come on. Let's go and find a good spot so we can see the stage."_

_ Elijah nodded, and Rebekah took his arm, leading him towards the main performance area, already full of people milling around. But suddenly Elijah caught his sister's arm, stopping her. "Rebekah…do you…"_

_ "Something's not right," she said in quiet agreement, looking curiously through the crowd for the cause of their mutual unrest._

_ They could both hear it, a low humming noise underneath the normal sounds of people talking and laughing and the musicians running sound-checks—but it didn't sound like anything electrical. Elijah suddenly felt unbearably tense, as though his nerves were piano strings being tightened too far, the taut wires plucked over and over. Soon they were going to inevitably snap. But it wasn't just a feeling. He could hear something too—and by the look on Rebekah's face, she was registering the same buzzing drone as well._

_ "What is that?" She looked at her brother, clearly expecting Elijah as always to have all the answers._

_ "I don't have any idea." Elijah scanned the faces of the people around them, recognizing no one in particular, suddenly wishing very much that Hayley and Klaus were back with them and they were all together, feeling as though things were about to go very, very wrong, the humming sound growing in volume, starting to hurt his left inner ear (it was oddly only audible in one ear) with its intensity, and make him feel slightly nauseous as the sound raised suddenly and steeply in pitch._

_ "Shit!" Rebekah clapped a hand to her left ear. "What the fuck?"_

_ No one else at the concert seemed to be noticing anything, or reacting to any kind of noise, which seemed impossible at the volume level it had grown to now, Elijah pressing a hand to his left ear as well, trying to silence the sound but only intensifying the pressure, Rebekah suddenly letting out a small cry of surprise and pulling her hand away from her ear, finding it covered in blood. Elijah followed suit, and found that the same was true for him, both of them literally bleeding out their ears. He grabbed Rebekah's arm. "Let's find Hayley and Klaus. We're leaving. Now." He started to pull her through the crowd, Rebekah looking close to tears as she followed behind him—when suddenly the sound stopped, along with the pain, and the bleeding. _

_ Elijah turned to look at his sister, bewildered, Rebekah wiping her bloody hand on her jeans and staring at him with wide, blue eyes. Suddenly, her hand tightened on his arm as she saw something over his shoulder. "Elijah," her voice came out as a slightly fearful whisper._

_ He turned around, following her gaze across the mass of people to the fringe of the crowd to see a very familiar, very unwelcome face. Celeste was standing there, her arms crossed triumphantly over her chest as she watched Elijah and Rebekah, looking close to laughter, her usually dark eyes white and electric with her apparent newfound power from the Harvest. _

_That was worrisome enough, but even stranger was her present companion. Marcel was standing with her, but not his usual self at all. He didn't look confident or full of laughter. He looked like the walking dead, his eyes devoid of any light, his posture slumped and arms hanging limply at his sides almost as if invisible strings were all that were holding him upright, not looking at anyone or anything in particular, just staring forward into nothingness. Celeste almost seemed to be showing him off like some kind of sick trophy she had procured._

_ "What's she done to him?" Rebekah breathed out, starting to push through the crowd towards Celeste and Marcel._

_ "Wait, Rebekah, wait." Elijah stopped her._

_ "Let go of me! I'm helping him!" She tried to pull away, but Elijah held on tighter._

_ "Stop and think, sister! Don't you think that's exactly what she wants you to do? Run right to her? After the Harvest, Celeste will have been looking for a public place to make a display of the witches' newfound power in the Quarter, with her now at the helm. Clearly she's chosen tonight, just as I feared. And she's using Marcel to make her point because she was able to capture him when he was vulnerable after Davina's death and he was known as an enemy of magic in this place. "_

_ "Then we have to stop her," Rebekah said, "before she hurts him. Or anyone else."_

_ "I agree, but first we have to find Hayley. And Klaus. Before all hell breaks loose. We need to stand together in this."_

_ Rebekah cast an anxious look back at Marcel, suddenly looking confused. "They're gone. Elijah. Where are they?"_

_ When they didn't see them, Rebekah and Elijah turned in opposite directions, Elijah starting to feel like he was living in some kind of nightmarish amalgamation of a carnival funhouse when he realized he saw no sign of Celeste or Marcel. They had disappeared. "We need to regroup, the four of us. Now," Elijah took Rebekah by the hand, his sister seeming comforted by him taking an authoritative role, Elijah leading the way across the festival grounds towards the snack stands, finally seeing Hayley and Klaus sitting on a bench and talking like they didn't have a care in the world, Klaus drinking his beer and Hayley happily eating her turkey leg as they looked at something together on Klaus' phone. _

_ Elijah felt rage swell up within him again. What was this, fucking date night? He stormed over to them, dragging Rebekah along with him. "So sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to inform you both that Celeste is here, along with Marcel—"_

_ "Are you bleeding?" Hayley looked up at Elijah, climbing to her feet to gently examine the dried blood from his ear down to his neck. _

_ He pushed her hand away. "I'm fine, Hayley." His voice came out harsher than he intended, and Hayley recoiled, her eyes hurt. "Dude, what is your problem?"_

_ "My problem is that Rebekah and I were just warned by Celeste that she has chosen tonight to make a show of how powerful she has truly become, and you two are too busy making eyes at each other to bloody notice that anything's even happening!" _

_ Klaus took a long swallow of his beer, shaking his head with a little laugh afterwards, having the audacity to look bored as he sat back slightly on the bench, supporting himself with one hand. "Ah, yes, Elijah. The dreaded 'bleeding-ear' curse. I'm terrified, really. If I had known things were going to get this intense, I would have hidden under my covers with a flashlight all night so the big, bad witches couldn't get me." _

_ Klaus raised his cup to his lips to take another drink, but Elijah knocked it out of his hands, spilling beer all his brother's dark blue t-shirt. "Stop sitting there and smiling and being so damn glib about everything! Take something seriously for once in your life! The witches wield real power, especially now, and you know it!"_

_ Klaus raised his eyebrows, wiping the beer off his face as he stood up, stepping forward so he was nose-to-nose with his brother. "Real power? What, like you? Acting like a bloody child because the only way you ever get the girl is if I let you have her?" Klaus patted Elijah's cheek twice with his hand. "You owe me another drink, brother. Go on then and fetch it, I'll wait." _

_ "I don't owe you anything," Elijah's voice was quiet, but practically shaking with rage. "The only reason I came here to New Orleans is to help you. To protect our family."_

_ "Ah, yes. That does sound noble, doesn't it? Too bad you're such a shitty liar." Klaus grinned. "Just admit it, Elijah. You wanted what I had, and you came here to try and take it all away from me. You've dressed up your plays for power as benevolence and brotherhood, but in the end, it really just comes down to envy, doesn't it? Your bastard brother ends up with all the power, and you…with nothing." _

_Klaus moved his hand to Elijah's shoulder, squeezing tightly. "And it just drives _

_you mad, doesn't it, because every time you look at your precious Hayley, all you can think about is the fact that it's my child growing inside her, the child you could never give her, and the fact that no matter what you do, or how hard you try to replace me…it won't really matter. I'll always be that child's father. And Hayley may have never loved me, but I still fucked her first. Tell him how many times I made you come that night, sweetheart. Go ahead, tell him." Klaus looked to Hayley, but she was staring determinedly at the ground, giving all the answer that was needed with her silence. Klaus turned back to his brother, his lips twisting into a sinister smirk. "You see? That's the difference between you and me, Elijah. Girls want you to save them…and me to make them scream." Klaus smiled. "And I'm happy to oblige. So why don't we both just stick to what we're good at?"_

_ "What is that supposed to mean?" Elijah asked._

_ "It means…remember your place, brother. If you wish to remain here, you do so in service to me. Hayley, the child, New Orleans—they're all mine. If you want to help me keep them safe, fine." Klaus stepped even closer to Elijah. "But do not think me blind. When I arrived home today, it was perfectly clear what was bothering you and what I had very nearly stumbled upon. And if I ever again get even the slightest notion that you're trying to take anything that belongs to me for yourself…I swear to you, I will make your suffering a thousand times worse than what father did to me. He was an amateur in the art of pain. I've had a millennia to perfect the practice." _

_ "Stop this!" Hayley stepped in between them, pushing the two brothers apart, rounding on Klaus. "Jesus, Klaus! What century do you think you're living in? I don't belong to anyone, and definitely not you! Besides, weren't you just showing me text messages from your little girlfriend in Mystic Falls? Why do you care what I do or who I want? Clearly, you've already moved on! You barely even gave enough of a shit about me to notice me leaving the morning after we fucked! You laughed in my face when I showed up in New Orleans, and have hardly seemed to remember I exist for the past eight months except when I'm convenient to your plans or when you need an excuse to be a dick to your brother. You are a sad, miserable person, and I feel sorry for Caroline if she really is coming here to be with you. Now that Sophie's dead, you're damn lucky that I haven't already taken this baby and gotten her as far away from you as humanly possible."_

_ Klaus's blue eyes were ice cold as he surveyed Hayley, his expression uncaring, but Elijah could see that his brother was visibly upset by her words. "Oh by all means, Hayley, do share with the group—what's kept you here, then?"_

_ Hayley met Klaus' eyes steadily before she looked back at Elijah as if to answer his question, before turning back to Klaus. "You may have made her, Klaus. But you'll never be her father. I don't want you in her life. In fact, this whole family would be better off if you would just disappear, and you know it." Hayley swallowed hard. "I mean, it's not just me who wishes you were out of their lives. Your brother and sister, everyone in Mystic Falls, New Orleans...you really think you'd be used to the feeling of nobody wanting you by now."_

_ Suddenly many things happened at once. Klaus let out a roar of rage, seizing Hayley by the neck with both hands and lifting her off the ground, his face transforming into its hybrid form, Rebekah screaming out, "No, Klaus, stop!" as she rushed forward to try and stop him from hurting Hayley or the baby. But before she could reach him, Elijah transformed into his vampire form with a growl of fury, something that even his siblings rarely saw happen, charging his brother and knocking him to the ground, catching Hayley before he shoved Klaus aside, Elijah holding a shaking Hayley in his arms, looking up to his sister, "Help her," he commanded Rebekah, Rebekah nodding, helping Hayley to safety, Elijah vaguely registering the clouds parting above him to reveal the full moon, hearing a distant howling._

_Klaus had recovered by this point, appearing from nowhere and seizing his brother by the collar, lifting him bodily from the ground and throwing him into the nearest building and through a brick wall, Klaus following the chaos he'd created, even more people from the concert starting to gather and watch as Elijah pushed back up to his feet from where he'd smashed through a wooden table in the center of what seemed to be a hotel lobby._

_ "You'd tear our family apart," Klaus roared at his brother, kicking bricks out of the way and pulling him back up to his feet as he walked into the lobby through the hole he'd created in the brick wall, "for that she-wolf whore?"_

_ Elijah punched Klaus in the face, sending his younger brother crashing through the wall-length side window, shattering the glass as Klaus slammed into the opposite wall of the alley outside. Elijah stalked towards him, his face stolid and serious even in its predatory form, stepping through the shards of the window and lifting Klaus by the neck up against the wall. "You will never call her that word again, brother. Never."_

_ "Or what?" Klaus tried to laugh, blood seeping through his teeth, the sound of police sirens joining in with screams from the crowd outside the alley as the howls began to grow closer. _

_ Elijah smashed the heel of his hand against his brother's stomach, snapping three of Klaus' ribs neatly in half, Klaus letting out a strangled cry of pain, crumpling to the ground as Elijah released him, stepping back, Elijah's hand shaking slightly as he pointed as his brother and stepped away from him, trying to keep his composure as he spoke. "You're the one destroying this family, Klaus. I've tried everything to make us whole again—"_

_ Klaus clutched his injured side, shaking his head. "Really? Have you? By making the mother of my child wish me gone forever?"_

_ "You did that! Not me!" Elijah roared. _

_ "Bollocks! You've done everything in your power to make Hayley worship you and despise me! This must be the happiest day of your life, her finally admitting that you're the father she wants for my child! Your plan finally worked, Elijah—_

_congratulations! Now it's only a matter of time before you take the city as well." Klaus sneered._

_ "No, brother, you don't understand—"_

_ "Then clarify for me." Klaus finally managed to get back up to his feet, walking towards Elijah, the sky splitting with lightning behind him, a sudden storm that didn't seem entirely natural descending on the city._

_ "I love her," Elijah said simply._

_ Klaus stopped for a moment, still clutching his side, looking at Elijah as if he'd just snapped his other ribs. Then he recovered from the surprise, letting out a labored breath. "Then you are an even greater fool than I imagined. Consider this a mercy." He lunged towards Elijah, clearly intending to bite his neck and weaken him, but Elijah anticipated him, using Klaus' momentum to heave him bodily across the square into the second story of one of the bars closed for the night. Elijah tore through the crowd, most people having the sense to make way for him, when suddenly he heard Hayley's voice, "No! Stop!" _

_ Elijah turned to see what was happening, finally registering some of the chaos happening around him. Most of the humans in the crowd were struggling to escape, bottlenecking the exits, and Elijah soon saw why. The vampires of New Orleans had arrived. They had apparently made their way from the usual nightly post along the rooftops down to the concert grounds at the smell of blood and chaos. And then Klaus emerged, his silhouette framed by the wreckage of the second story of the building where Elijah had thrown him, Klaus looking towards the full moon for a moment before calling out to the vampires that were once in Marcel's army but had now joined Klaus. _

"_Brothers! Sisters! It is time to show the insurgents of this city where the true power lies!" Klaus called to his followers, and they raised a cheer, the younger and more irresponsible of his vampires going fully blood drunk and just feeding on the remaining helpless members of the crowd at random, but most turning and preparing to fight as a full werewolf clan descended from a hill down to the grounds as well, the werewolves surrounding Hayley who had somehow gotten separated from Rebekah._

_The wolves were seemingly closing ranks around Hayley to protect her and her child, different members of the clan in varying stages of the transformation brought on by the night's full moon, destroying various parts of the fair grounds to arm themselves with wooden stakes to use against the vampires, either clawing or biting any remaining concertgoers in their path._

"_Hayley belongs with us. With her people. As does her child." The largest male at the front of the werewolf pack, a young, muscular man, his eyes like a wolf but the rest of him still in human form, bellowed up at Klaus. He had clearly earned his position at the front of the army through strength instead of battle experience, still a very young werewolf, as evidenced by him still being in his early stages of transformation—and his utter stupidity in so boldly challenging Klaus. "Let us leave with her in peace, and we have no quarrel with your people."_

_Klaus leaped down from the second floor of the building, landing smoothly in front of the werewolf at the front of their army. He looked the man—practically just an overgrown boy— up and down, smiling and baring his fangs, Elijah experiencing a sinking feeling in his stomach, knowing what was going to happen before it did. _

"_I'm part wolf, mate, or have you forgotten?" Klaus suddenly plunged his hand into the werewolf's chest, seizing the foolishly brave fighter's heart in his hand, the werewolf letting out a howl of breathless pain as Klaus didn't extract his heart right away, different from his brother in that he preferred to relish this particular process, his vampires falling in around him, laughing and smiling, Klaus looking up at the young man. "Which means that I happen to know werewolves are notoriously difficult to kill." He finally pulled out the man's heart with brutal, exacting strength, crushing it in his fist afterwards, letting blood leak out between his fingers as his opponent keeled over at his feet. "Extraction of the heart is actually one of the only ways to kill a werewolf instantly." Klaus looked around at the rest of the werewolf pack. "Anyone care for another lesson? Or are you wise enough to give up the girl peacefully and join me?" _

_Apparently, werewolves were not the most peaceful of people, especially after Klaus had just killed one of their own so mercilessly, charging forward as a full vampire and werewolf battle began, Klaus seeming to be enjoying himself as he fought for the vampires this time, scaling buildings, clawing through brick with his bare hands. _

_Elijah sought out Hayley in the battle, fighting off werewolves to get to her, Hayley looking frightened for her child, but relieved when she saw Elijah. "Elijah!" she called out, but the werewolves closed in around her, three women and two men, in an effort to prevent him from going to her._

"_I am not my brother, and I do not want to kill you all, but I will for her. Move aside," Elijah said sternly._

_The wolves looked to Hayley, and she gave them a small nod, speaking in a voice that pleasantly surprised Elijah with her authority. "He's not like the others. He only wants to keep me and my child safe. Let him pass."_

_The wolves moved aside, and Elijah stepped forward to her, going to wrap his arms around her in a relieved embrace, but Hayley caught his face in her hands and kissed him hard, not seeming to care that his face was still transformed or that she could feel his fangs when she kissed him, Elijah so caught off guard and full of adrenaline that he couldn't stop his body from responding and kissing her back, holding her tightly against him until they broke apart breathlessly what felt like seconds later but, judging by the stunned faces of those around them, had been much longer._

_ "Hayley…" Elijah reached down to her, his face falling with shame, brushing the blood from the broken skin of her full bottom lip with his thumb._

_ She shook her head, laughing and smiling as she looked up at him, seeming almost half-mad with power and blood and freedom. "Elijah, I don't care."_

_ "NEW ORLEANS! Is this really who you want for your leader?" A booming female voice suddenly seemed to fill the entire concert grounds, all of the werewolves and vampires and anyone else unfortunate enough to have fallen into their path and not been able to escape ceasing their fighting for a moment and turning towards the source of the noise on the concert stage._

_ Celeste was standing on the stage, Marcel slumped against the stairs slightly off to the side, Rebekah holding him and looking up at Celeste, Rebekah beaten and bloody herself, seemingly from fighting her way to Marcel. But Celeste wasn't looking at them—she was pointing at Klaus, standing at the front of his vampire army._

_ "You got a problem with my leadership style, love?" Klaus called back to her. _

_ Celeste ignored Klaus, raising both hands now above her head and speaking to the crowd. "Niklaus Mikaelson is no true king! Look at this man! He can't even control his own family! The mother of his child is in the arms of his brother!" She motioned to Elijah and Hayley. "His sister has fled from his side to support the claim of his rival." Celeste indicated Marcel and Rebekah. She spoke next to the werewolves. "He has said himself that he is part wolf, and this very night, he brutally murders his own people, his own blood." Then the vampires. "He only won your loyalty through violence and cruelty, and if any one of you is no longer useful to him, he will dispose of you without thought." She then looked directly at Klaus. "Magic has run through the veins of this city from its inception. Under my leadership, the witches have broken every restraint placed on them, and we now have power you could never even hope to possess. We will take back our city, and throw you out of it. For good. Consider this my formal declaration of war. I will return to the Quarter seven days from tonight at this time to accept your surrender and your child, Niklaus, since we've protected her from the start and she rightfully belongs to us. Anyone who wishes to join us will be spared. Anyone who opposes us will be destroyed. There will be no negotiations. The time has come for all of you to make the final choice between my rule or eternal torment." Celeste reached down, her hand on Marcel's shoulder as Rebekah held him, and with a sudden flare of fire, all three of them were gone and all of the buildings surrounding the concert venue were suddenly engulfed in flames._

_ Absolute madness ensued again, and the battle began anew, but Hayley and Elijah managed to get away and escape back to the werewolf encampment, hiding out in a cave until the morning, when the rest of the clan returned from the massacre of the battle of the full moon._

Elijah rubbed his forehead wearily. Even after everything, he worried for Klaus. He hadn't seen him since that night, he had no idea what had become of him, and despite everything, Elijah wanted to make sure he was all right. He knew it was madness, he knew he should just give up and stop trying, but he also knew that he never could and never would give up on his brother.

They had to at least try to make peace between them, he, Rebekah, and Klaus, so that they could stand together in this and stop Celeste. It sounded impossible right now with the state things were in—but he agreed with Rebekah—they had to try.

Caroline kept her hand pressed against her bloody cheek, just standing there stunned for a moment after Rebekah seemingly disappeared from the restaurant bathroom. Surely there was some way out of this place she didn't know about—but she didn't really feel any kind of burning desire to go chasing after Rebekah Mikaelson.

She'd never really known what to make of Klaus' sister—sometimes Caroline felt intimidated by her, sometimes she felt sorry for her—and tonight had been a

combination of both. Yeah, Rebekah had thrown her around a rag doll—she was an Original, duh. They were the strongest vampires in the world. But even when she was making fun of Caroline, Rebekah's blue eyes had looked so haunted and exhausted and sad, and when she talked about Klaus, there was almost palpable longing in her voice. She missed her brother, no matter what crazy battle they were having this time. And Caroline felt a little bad for her.

But why had she kept bringing up Hayley Marshall, of all people? Caroline hadn't even thought about her in what felt like years, and she had barely tolerated her when she had briefly been in Mystic Falls and spent most of her time basically living with Tyler while he assured Caroline nothing was going on even though Hayley was one of those girls that drove Caroline crazy. Hayley was just effortlessly "sexy," always with slightly rumpled perfectly-boho-wavy hair like she'd just fucked your boyfriend, that perma-smirk that looked like she knew something you didn't, and vintage, loose-fitting clothes that somehow always seemed this close to falling off. Girls like Hayley made her secretly furious. She knew she would look stupid if she ever tried to pull off that look, and "pretty" or "cute" was usually the best she could hope for after striving for hours and guys usually just seemed mostly indifferent to her appearance, like oh, yeah, that's just always how Caroline looks, shrug, (except for Klaus, she reminded herself, feeling a little better), but girls like Hayley never even seemed to be putting any effort in and guys got all tongue-tied and stupid around them.

Whatever. Who knew what Rebekah was talking about half the time? Klaus had said he'd tell her what was going on with his plan, so she'd ask him about Hayley then. Caroline removed her hand from her cheek, examining the cut in the shards that remained in the mirror. The bleeding had stopped, but she was going to have a bruise. Suddenly there was an urgent knocking at the door.

"Caroline?" Klaus' voice. "Caroline, are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She went to the door, opening it, Klaus' eyes widening when he saw her bruised and bloody face, the broken mirror, and the fallen tiles from the bathroom wall. "Don't freak out." Caroline put her hand on his arm.

"What the hell happened?" Klaus stepped past her.

"Blond, angry, stripper heels, about ye high…" Caroline held her hand up way above her head.

"Rebekah was here?" Klaus turned around, stunned.

"Yeah. Didn't your hear us?" Caroline asked him.

"I had to step outside to take a call…" Klaus breathed out, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck before walking towards her, taking Caroline's face gently in his hands, looking at her wound, his eyes hardening with anger towards his sister. "She did this to you?"

"Klaus, I'm fine." Caroline sighed with a small smile. "Your sister's not the most subtle person in the world. But she doesn't scare me. She never has. And I think that pisses her off. So, you know, she throws me into bathroom mirrors."

"She's just jealous of you," Klaus said quietly, but he didn't elaborate further even when Caroline looked up at him quizzically. He leaned forward, kissing her briefly on the lips. "I'm so sorry, love. Let's just go home."

Caroline nodded, taking his hand and following him out of the bathroom and into the private ballroom dining area he'd reserved for them on the second floor of the restaurant. A delicious looking dinner was already on the table, and he'd apparently compelled the wait staff to leave once they'd served dinner so he and Caroline could talk privately, red curtains drawn on all the doors, candles lit on the table, a glass chandelier turned to dim light over a glossy black piano in the far corner, and low level lighting built in the edge of the private bar on the other side of the room. There was a full-length window on the far wall with what seemed to be a stunning view of downtown New Orleans, but the red velvet curtains were closed over the window as well, leaving only a sliver of the city lights visible where the curtains didn't quite meet in the middle. It seemed a shame to walk away from such an elaborate dinner and beautiful arrangement, but Klaus hardly even seemed to notice any of it, leading Caroline towards the closed door to the front staircase out of the restaurant. But Caroline stopped him while they were still in the private dining room. "Wait, Klaus. Rebekah did give me a message for you."

He turned and looked back at her. "What message?"

"She wants you to meet with her and Elijah. Tomorrow night at three o'clock. To try and negotiate some kind of peace treaty between the three of you. She said you'd know where. And that if you don't show or if you bring anyone with you, they'll take it as you declaring war on both of them."

Klaus was stunned into silence for a moment. "Is she out of her fucking mind?"

Caroline shrugged. "I'm just telling you what she said. And she said that Elijah's agreed to the meeting already." She swallowed, suddenly feeling a little nervous to go on and not knowing exactly why. "For Hayley's sake. What…what did she mean by that, Klaus?"

Klaus dropped Caroline's hand, shaking his head and walking over to the bar. He poured himself a shot of whiskey, drinking it and letting out a long breath. "That traitorous fucking bitch," he muttered to himself.

"Hayley?" Caroline blinked with confusion.

"No, my darling sister." Klaus poured himself another shot, drinking it down disturbingly fast before pouring himself another. "I really am getting more and more attached to idea of just getting it over with and killing her myself."

Caroline walked over to the bar. "Klaus. Just tell me what's going on."

He turned to look at her, his expression softening slightly as guilt seemed to overwhelm him, sighing heavily and sliding the shot over to her. "Go on then, love. I wish I'd had a few of these the first time I heard what I'm about to tell you."

"No." Caroline shook her head, her small hand closing around the shot glass. "I want the truth first."

Klaus nodded, sliding out a bar stool for her. Caroline sat down nervously, having absolutely no idea where this was going as he took the stool beside her, not looking at Caroline as he started talking, just staring at the taps and bottles behind the bar in the dim light, his voice emotionless as he began to speak. "I made the acquaintance of Hayley Marshall when I was trying to gain more information on Katherine and the cure. Not that it really matters now, but once it became common knowledge in the underworld that Hayley could provide possible access to Katherine, she needed protection from someone powerful enough to keep Silas, the Salvatores, and any other possible threat at bay. Even my siblings had proved…disappointingly fallible to the constraints of mortality, but I had not. So she turned to me for protection, and seeing as she was my only possible link to Katherine, we decided to form a mutually beneficial alliance, albeit a temporary one." Klaus fell silent for a moment. "Even she could see how in love I was with you, Caroline, and what a fucking mess wanting you had made of me, and she was lonely too, and we…I don't know, I suppose we just didn't want to think about how miserable our lives were for a moment. So we both drank too much, and ended up sleeping together."

Caroline stared down at the bar, a strange pounding in her ears, not able to quite articulate any one feeling yet. "When did all of this happen?"

"Towards the end of your senior year. I didn't…you had your own matters to attend to, with Elena's recent decision to abandon her humanity and Tyler leaving Mystic Falls. I just wanted…to try and forget you for a night, and Hayley was—"

"Okay, okay!" Caroline stopped him, her laugh a little too high-pitched. "Hayley's super-sexy and dangerous and cool and everything I'm not, and you were trying to get over me. Got it. Move on to the next part of the story, please."

Klaus looked up at her, the side of his mouth curving into a small smile before he cleared his throat and continued. "She left the next morning, and I thought I'd never see her again, and, er…let's just say, neither of us would have been broken-hearted if that had been the case. But then Katherine contacted me about the witches planning something against me in New Orleans. When I arrived to confront the coven about what they were planning, my brother Elijah was here, along with Hayley…" Klaus braced his hands against the edge of the bar for a moment. "…and they informed me that Hayley was pregnant with my child."

Caroline's entire mouth went dry. "But…how is that…" she sputtered.

"Apparently because I was born a werewolf—the normal rules of hybrid procreation don't apply."

Caroline did take the shot then, drinking it in one swallow, staring sightlessly at the mirrored panels behind the bar for a long moment of silence. "I mean, do we even know the baby's yours? Hayley's not exactly a blushing little flower of innocence. Maybe she just thought…your family's totally loaded, and, from some stuff Tyler told me, she like grew up homeless and living on beaches in tents, and like hitching across the country with truckers…"

Klaus turned to look at Caroline with a small laugh. "Caroline. That wasn't very kind."

"Well, I'm just saying…"

"No, I actually thought…remarkably along the same lines when I heard the news initially. But this is no ordinary child, Caroline—that has been proven time and time again. The pregnancy has given Hayley abilities that could only come from carrying the child of a hybrid descended from a witch. There's no denying the parentage at this point. And once she's born, she may very well surpass even me in her power."

"She?" Caroline asked quietly.

"Yes. The witches have confirmed that Hayley's having a girl."

Caroline let out a long breath, resting her forehead in her hands for a moment. "Do you want to be with Hayley? Raise your daughter together? I'd rather just know now if you do."

"Of course not. I only want to be with you. You know that." Klaus put his hand on Caroline's back. "I…I can acknowledge that Hayley will be a part of my life now that we share this child, and our daughter should know both of her parents and spend time with us in some way that works for all of the parties involved, but that's all. I love you, Caroline. Only you, forever. And moreover, Hayley…has decided to share her life with my brother. From what I hear, they're living together in a home in the bayou."

Caroline did look up at that, her blue eyes wide. "Hayley and Elijah are together? Before she even…I mean, she's still pregnant with your kid but she's already shacked up with him?"

"Yes. They were already carrying on some kind of…relationship while they were both under my roof—I don't know to what extent, but they were definitely involved. And then, during the Jazz Festival insanity, Elijah confessed to me that he was in love with her. They left that night together with Hayley's werewolf clan. I haven't heard from them since."

"That's…Klaus, I'm sorry." Caroline didn't know what else to say.

"It's fine. It's not as if Hayley and I were together."

"I know, but your own brother? That's messed up. I thought it was super-weird when Elena just basically wandered down the boarding house hallway and switched Salvatores, but at least she wasn't pregnant with one of their babies when she did her little do-si-do…" Caroline's voice trailed off for a moment. "So this is all what really caused the big fight during the festival?"

"Well, I mean, it was everything else I told you also, but the Hayley issue was certainly a…contributing factor." Klaus took Caroline's hand on top of the bar. "I'm sorry, Caroline. I should have told you all of this sooner, but it's…it's a difficult thing to explain, and…"

"Kind of a mood-killer. I get it," Caroline said thoughtfully, putting her other hand on top of his. "When I first got here, I didn't give you any reason to think I was staying past this week. I wouldn't really have been dying to talk about all of this baby mama drama either if I was you. But after today…I feel like...things are different. And you promised me I could trust you now. Don't make me regret it." She squeezed his hand tighter. "No more secrets, okay? No more waiting until someone else forces the issue to tell me the truth. I don't care what it is, I don't care if it's hard to hear or not nice, just _tell me._ And I'll be honest with you too." Caroline swallowed hard, looking at him seriously. "Klaus, when your sister was here, I told her…I told her that I wouldn't leave you. That I'd stay with you and never betray you, and I meant it. You're not fighting this war alone anymore. So we have to trust each other."

Klaus looked shocked and happy and slightly terrified, but he just nodded, gripping her hand back. "You'll never know how much that loyalty means to me. I'll tell you anything you want to know, Caroline. Even the unpleasant parts."

"Well, you did promise to let me in on this precious plan of yours," Caroline smiled, "but if you don't mind, we're letting a perfectly good dinner go to waste, and I was kind of thinking I might multi-task. Eat and listen?"

"Of course, love." Klaus smiled back, offering her his arm and leading her over to their candlelit table, pulling out her chair and letting Caroline sit down before he took the seat next to her, Caroline eagerly drinking more of that delicious blood wine and starting in on her gourmet shrimp gumbo as Klaus launched into the rather lengthy tale of his history with Marie Laveau. Once he was finished telling her about that, he reached the part of the story he'd been dreading— informing her what had really become of Elena, and why Damon and Katherine were arriving tomorrow so he could procure enough Petrova doppelganger blood for Marie Laveau's spell in exchange for returning Elena to her body. He carefully explained the details about Katherine initiating the Passenger spell, and made sure to further emphasize that it was reversible.

"Reversible how?" Caroline blinked, horrified just by the Elena and Katherine switching bodies part of the story—that her best friend was trapped in some dead lady's body, that she had been unknowingly living with Katherine Pierce for three weeks, that she'd let that bitch use her straightener and drink her blood bags, that stupid Damon and disgusting Katherine were crashing Caroline's sexy Klaus party—none of this was particularly thrilling to her.

And it looked like Klaus knew what came next wouldn't make her happy either, taking a long drink from the blood wine himself before continuing. "The Passenger Spell can only be reversed if the intruder spirit is made to suffer such unbearable torment that it, in essence, "snaps," returning both spirits to their proper bodies, causing instant death for the intruder spirit once it is forced to return to their deceased mortal casing, thus allowing the hijacked spirit back to its proper place. So I just have to make it unpleasant enough for Katherine to live that she has no choice but to give up the ghost at last, so to speak, so that Elena can be returned to her true self."

"But the only way to make that happen is to torture Katherine, in Elena's body, until she basically surrenders?" Caroline asked uneasily.

"Yes. Damon tried to do it himself, and was…unable to perform, so he asked me for help, and I told him I would assist him with this unpleasant task in return for the Petrova doppelganger blood Marie requires for the spell we need to defeat the coven challenging me and demanding my surrender and my child."

Caroline finished her glass of wine, her voice very small and quiet when she spoke again. "What are you going to do to Elena?"

Klaus looked up at her sharply. "It's not Elena, Caroline. The woman arriving tomorrow is not your best friend. Your best friend is trapped inside a corpse right now, because of Katherine. She'll look and sound like Elena because she mercilessly stole Elena's body, but it's Katherine. You have to remember that. Remind yourself of that, whenever you start to pity her."

Caroline nodded, but didn't look anymore convinced this was the right thing.

"And if I do nothing," Klaus went on, "and Katherine's daughter finds a way to destroy her mother's corpse, which she most certainly will eventually, Katherine will win control of Elena's body permanently. You will never see your best friend again."

"I just wish there was another way." Caroline pushed her food around on her plate miserably.

"Breaking someone doesn't always mean stretching them out on a rack, Caroline. There are many ways to push someone past a limit of pain they can endure. It doesn't even necessarily have to be physical torment. It could be mental. Emotional. There are many different tactics I can employ. I actually think outright violence would be the least effective methodology against someone like Katherine."

"You won't hurt her then?" Caroline looked up, relieved.

"I won't physically harm her. Especially not if it would displease you."

"Do you…do you still think you can get Elena back without…you know, putting a _Saw _bear-trap on her head?"

"Yes. As I said, Katherine is overly accustomed to physical pain. She is very capable of compartmentalizing it, distancing herself from it in her mind. Attacking her mind, her emotions—she won't expect it, certainly not from me, and I don't think she would be as adept at withstanding psychological assault as she probably thinks she is. I was actually…I was thinking you would be able to assist me in this, if you were willing. You're quite good at getting in the heads of the demented and deranged." Klaus raised an eyebrow at her.

Caroline nodded solemnly. "If it will help get Elena back. I'll do whatever I can." She raised her fork to her lips, taking a thoughtful bite of shrimp. "So Damon and…Katherine will be staying with us? Like in the house?"

Klaus looked about as pleased with the idea as Caroline. "I know. It's not exactly an ideal arrangement, but I think it's the only option. The home's…unique enchantment will at least ensure both Damon and Katherine have no choice but to remain in one place. They will be unable to venture off on their own and engineer any kind of deceptions or double-crosses while they are here with us in New Orleans. Damon may claim they are enemies now, but I assure you, war tends to make for strange bedfellows, Katherine is a born seductress, and she still inhabits the body of the woman he loves. Damon's flesh is weak and he owes no true loyalty to any one of us here—I wouldn't be at all surprised if Katherine manages to somehow win him to her side."

"Really?" Caroline considered this for a moment. "Even if that meant he would lose Elena forever?"

"He already has Elena here with him, physically. Katherine will surely exploit that angle in any way that she can to cloud his judgment and his ability to make wise decisions when it comes to her. I could certainly see Damon temporarily losing sight of the larger overall picture in favor of…satisfying more fleeting desires with her."

Caroline wrinkled her nose. "Ew."

"Agreed. Shall we change the subject?"

"Please. Quickly. Mental images are starting to form." Caroline pushed her mostly-finished plate of food away. "Besides—sorry, but just a final note on the topic—even if you're right, and he or Katherine try to get all sneaky and take Elena away from me, you don't have to worry. I'll handle them myself."

"I don't doubt it." Klaus' mouth twisted into a slow smirk of approval of the darker side of her nature. "So did you enjoy your first real taste of New Orleans cuisine, Caroline?"

"I did." Caroline smiled as she looked up at him, the candles from the table casting shadows on their skin. "Klaus, can I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"I know it's been the weirdest day ever, and this is going to sound totally nuts…but…" Caroline shook her head, her blond curls falling over her shoulders, "…this, here with you, right now, is the best I've felt in a long time."

He smiled back at her, but Caroline saw a hint of nervousness in his blue eyes. "Perhaps it's just the wine," he shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe," she rolled her eyes with a little laugh, Klaus laughing too before she leaned forward and kissed him softly, her hand on his cheek. She didn't pull away from the kiss when a few seconds had gone by and the time had come to end what would have qualified as a sweet "thanks-for-a-nice-dinner" kiss. She didn't feel like pulling away, not when her heart sped up like this just from the feeling of his mouth against hers. Instead she slid her hand to the back of his neck and leaned into the kiss, and to her relief, Klaus responded in kind, apparently similarly disinterested in stopping at a polite embrace, gripping either side of her waist, his fingers clenching on her hips as her lips parted against his and Klaus growled into her mouth at the feeling of her tongue working against his, Klaus standing and pulling her up to her feet with him, Caroline wrapping her arms around his neck as they stumbled across the room, Caroline sliding his tuxedo jacket off his shoulders, pulling off his bowtie and starting to unbutton his shirt as he reached up to the zipper at back of her high-necked black dress with both hands, seizing both sides of the zipper with his hands and ripping the back of the dress open as they reached the piano in the far corner, Klaus shoving the piano bench out of the way, the bench careening across the room and smashing into the bar, breaking in half as he lifted her up on top of the piano.

Caroline pulled him to her, kissing him deeply before she lay back on top of the piano, stepping and sliding on the middle piano keys as she kicked out of her high heels, Klaus pressing down on five of the lowest piano keys at once with the palm of his left hand as he started to move Caroline's dress up around her hips with his other hand, accidentally causing the piano to emanate a deep, threatening sound that made them both laugh before he shook his head, muttering, "Oh, fuck it," just climbing on top of the piano with her, Caroline smiling up at him before they kissed on top of the piano, Caroline undoing his pants before Klaus reached up under her black dress to pull off her underwear, looking genuinely surprised when he discovered she wasn't wearing any. Caroline broke away from the kiss with a little laugh as Klaus still seemed confused, his hand up her dress.

"What, you want to send in a search team? I'm not wearing anything down there."

Klaus shook his head with a smile, Caroline's breath starting to quicken as he started to do more interesting things with his hand between her legs, her vision growing a little hazy, hearing his low, accented voice speaking in her ear, making her whole body tremble, sounding like he wanted to devour her whole, "Covering every inch of that perfect body of yours in a black dress cut up to your chin without a stitch underneath…Caroline…" She closed her eyes, and heard the sound of his hands squeaking slightly on the glossy surface of the top of the piano, and then his mouth hard on hers as he kissed her, long and deep, Caroline letting out a shaky breath after, her hands tightening at the back of his neck when he thrust into her, and they started. Once he was inside her, things grew less frantic and oddly peaceful, and she opened her eyes, looking up at him and not feeling afraid of what she looked like or what he might be thinking. She felt like she knew what he was thinking. Suddenly it was as though Caroline was hyper-aware of the connection between their bodies—their heartbeats. Their breathing. The way he looked at her during, his blue eyes searching and hopeful and honest like they so rarely were any other time. And as the heat spread through her body and the pleasure grew, she became acutely aware of one thing above all else—the blood pounding through his veins when they were together like this. And how much she could finally admit she craved it.

"K-Klaus…" Caroline breathed out, her hand on his neck as he moved against her, not sure how on earth how to ask for what she wanted next, but knowing she had to do it or she was just going to end up just trying to take it.

But as she struggled for the right words, trying to think on higher levels as her brain currently seemed to be incapable of producing anything more sophisticated than KLAUS-SEX-IS-AWESOME-DRINK-HIS-BLOOD-NOW, the strangest thing happened. She didn't say anything else, but he rolled onto his back (carefully keeping them still on the piano), pulling Caroline with him so that she was now on top.

"What are you—" Caroline looked down at him, stopping sex for a second, momentarily confused.

But then Klaus opened the cufflinks and rolled up his left sleeve, raised his left wrist to his mouth and bit deeply into his own flesh before holding up his wrist to her like an offering. "Go on, then, Caroline," he said quietly. Caroline's already racing heart nearly pounded out of her chest as she looked down at his blood pumping out of the bite left by his fresh teeth marks, dripping down his wrist and arm, staining his rolled-up white starched formal shirt.

"I don't…you don't have to…" she stammered.

"Drink it," he said again, in a tone that brokered no argument.

She didn't even bother protesting anymore, so ravenous for him at this point that she couldn't have even constructed a feeble argument if she'd tried, gripping his wrist with both hands and turning her head to drink, letting out a moan of pleasure so intense it almost bordered on agony, pain that she couldn't consume more, quicker, the moment the taste hit her tongue, Caroline's grip tightening to a bone-breaking strength as she started to drink deeper as her fangs emerged, moving her hips against Klaus' body stretched out beneath her without even really realizing she was doing it, Klaus groaning with approval as they started to fuck again in earnest, Caroline still drinking so voraciously she couldn't have stopped even if she wanted to, circling her hips in slow, deliberate rhythm with her sucking and swallowing from his wrist, wanting to give him even some small fraction of the insane amount of pleasure he was giving her, her eventual orgasm shattering anything nice or polite or good that remained in her into dust for one glorious, explosive moment, Caroline throwing her head back with an animalistic cry of freedom, his blood dripping from her fangs, breathing so hard she felt like she was going to pass out.

She felt guilty when she remembered this later, but for a fleeting second, she almost forgot Klaus was there. Just for like one tiny little second, and then of course, she remembered. But it still made her guilty when she thought about it later.

Caroline looked back down at him, seeing that he was breathing hard too. He also looked pale. Like really, really pale. Good grief—how much of his blood had she taken? She was still holding Klaus' wrist with both of her hands, and she was still covered in his blood. There was a weirdly awkward post-sex moment of silence between them.

"Did I hurt you?" Caroline finally asked, gingerly releasing his bloody wrist and disentangling herself from him to sit beside him on the piano, her face returning to normal as she attempted to straighten her dress back down. The back of the dress was hopeless—Klaus had ripped it beyond repair. Her wardrobe was never going to survive this relationship.

Klaus laughed a little weakly at her question, but she couldn't help but notice he was really pale and sweaty as he sat up beside her, doing his pants back up. "Caroline. I can't be killed. No, you didn't _hurt_ me."

"Are you sure?" She reached out, brushing his damp hair back off his forehead, noticing with a sinking feeling that Klaus stiffened slightly at her touch.

"Yes, I'm sure." Klaus took a deep breath, almost looking like he needed a cigarette or something. "I told you I wouldn't judge your desires, Caroline, and I don't. For some reason or another, you've been dying to feed off me since you got here. So I figured we might as well check another one off the list."

Caroline wiped off her mouth with the back of her hand, looking down at his blood on her hand and mentally commanding herself not to lick it off. Klaus already was looking at her like she was a psycho. Dial it on back, she told herself sternly. "How did you know I wanted to?"

"Call it a hunch." Klaus grinned at her, looking more like his normal self.

She pressed her lips together for a moment. "What's happening to me?" she finally asked quietly.

"How do you mean?"

"Why would I suddenly crave blood so much more than usual? And your blood more than anyone else's?" Caroline looked at him, her brow furrowed with confusion.

"I'm not sure," Klaus said thoughtfully. "You could speak with Marie about it tomorrow if you wish. She has this rather annoying habit of knowing something about everything." He smiled affectionately.

"Um, yeah, that sounds like it would go really well. 'Hey, old lady I just met who's basically the pseudo-mom of the guy I'm sleeping with—I seem to be insanely addicted to fucking him six ways from Sunday and have an insatiable craving for his blood—any ideas on why that might be?'"

Klaus snickered, but it didn't sound like he really though it was that funny. "Well, you might want to choose slightly different phrasing." He climbed off of the piano, unrolling his left sleeve and buttoning his shirt back up, looking slightly annoyed.

"What's wrong?" Caroline asked.

"I just didn't know you thought the sex thing…was some weird craving, or addiction, or whatever else is going on with you."

"Klaus, I was just joking. I just meant, because she's basically like your mom, I don't really want to tell her all the details of our sex life."

"Right, sure," Klaus said in a weird, clipped tone, picking up his jacket and bowtie off the floor, shoving his bowtie in his jacket pocket.

Caroline slipped off the piano, tugging her dress up to keep it on her shoulders, feeling more and more annoyed with him too for ripping it open in the back. "Don't make this into something it's not. I was totally kidding."

Klaus didn't say anything for a moment, going to the window and looking out at the sliver of New Orleans that was visible between the two red velvet curtains. Caroline sighed, going to join him, just giving up and holding her dress on her shoulders with both hands.

He wordlessly held his suit jacket out to her, and Caroline sighed, gratefully slipping it over her shoulders, crossing her arms and looking up at him, the lights of the city reflecting in his light blue eyes. He still wouldn't say anything, so she gave in first, ending the silence between them. "What are you looking at?"

"One of the reasons this is my favorite restaurant." Klaus smiled softly. "Come here, Caroline."

She blinked with surprise. He could change moods so quickly it gave her whiplash sometimes, but okay, whatever. She moved closer to him, Klaus' hands on her shoulders as she stood in front of him, Klaus leaning closer to her, his mouth against her ear. "Do you see those lights on the water?"

"Yes."

"That is the location of the very docks where Rebekah, Elijah, and I first landed here over three centuries ago." Caroline could hear Klaus smiling at the memory, his hands sliding down her arms. "We were never happier together than when we first called this place home."

Caroline didn't say anything for a moment, choosing her next words carefully. "Maybe…maybe you should hear what they have to say tomorrow."

"I honestly don't see the point."

Caroline turned around in his arms, looking up at him. "What would you lose by going? Maybe if you just give them a chance to—"

"_I've given them enough fucking chances!_" Klaus practically snarled, Caroline sighing, knowing he only talked like this when he had his feelings hurt.

"Klaus, if you don't go, and something horrible happens to them, you'll regret it. You know you will."

"They've both made it perfectly clear how much better off they all think our family would be without me. Perhaps it's time I grant their wish. Let's see them fight their own battles for once." Klaus shrugged. "No more of Rebekah crying to me to protect her when life gets too hard for Daddy's little angel or Elijah working himself into a frenzy trying so hard to nail himself up on a cross and save my immortal soul. Both are equally exhausting and insufferable, and I'm done with them."

"So, that's it? If you don't go, Rebekah said they could join forces against you—her, Elijah, Marcel, Hayley, the witches, the werewolves..."

Klaus shrugged. "Let them come. We're stronger than all of them. I have faith in the people fighting for me. And also remember this— they don't have a weapon powerful enough to stop me, even my fellow siblings. Elijah and Rebekah are no match for me in a fight, even together. Marie Laveau is the greatest witch that has ever lived. And once she has Katherine's doppelganger blood, she can defeat Celeste's coven easily. As far as the werewolves, they look to Hayley because of her royal lineage within her clan but she does not know how to rule them—they're disorganized and reckless and sloppy. My vampires—especially the ones I entrust with leadership—have the discipline and training and battle structure they lack. And with you beside me, Caroline—"

"Me?"

Klaus reached down, smoothing her blond curly hair with his hand. "I think you have immense untapped potential as a fighter. Battle skills come remarkably naturally to you. It always angered me greatly that no one trained you properly when you were initially turned. You have the instincts, the ferocity, the speed, the strength—all of the things I look for in my leading generals."

"You're just being nice," Caroline said skeptically, interlacing her fingers at the back of his neck.

Klaus looked offended. "Lying about this could get you killed. I would never. Caroline, I told you that I want you to be my queen. My true queen, who stands with me in everything, including battle. And good instincts or not, there are some things you could stand to learn, just as I had to. If you'd like, I think it would be beneficial for you and I to go through at least basic combat training this week at the house."

"I'd like that." Caroline studied his face for a moment. "Who taught you how to fight?"

Klaus' jaw tightened. "My brother."

"Elijah?" she asked.

"Yes." Klaus looked lost in thought for a moment. "But that was all a very long time ago." He seemed to be trying to come back to the moment with her, but she could tell he was still struggling with wresting the fingers of the past loose from his mind completely, Klaus determinedly placed his hands on Caroline's waist. "They've made their choices. And I've made mine." He leaned forward, brushing his mouth briefly against hers, before wrapping his arms around her in an embrace, cradling Caroline's head against his shoulder as she hugged him back, trying to hold him close enough to bring him back into present with her, but thinking to herself, _he's looking out the window at those lights on the water—he may not be fighting alongside them, but Elijah and Rebekah can still take him away from me whenever they want._

A/N- Until chapter five!


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